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“Like Grandmother Mabel I want my granddaughter to remember everything I do, but, even as I tell the story, I find myself pulling out the strands of strongest connection. It is not that one fact has more truth than another but rather that it clarifies the color, texture and line of my story. So stories are created, woven together not chronologically but magically to strengthen the connection to the ancestors, the family and the earth. The story I am weaving for Wind in the Mountains and for her granddaughter pulls in many worlds, and the women from those worlds have chosen to be part of it. I am still unpeeling the layers of meaning in Grandmother Mabel's words. Each remembering reveals fuller meaning and enriches the legacy of my family”

“Somebody Always Singing You”
University Press of Mississippi 1997

. . . . .

“In the dreadful and marvelous chaos and consistency of daily life, a memory teases me. When it is strong, I reach for it to give it shape - as an idea, a thought, an object, a person, a set of events - held loosely in the grasp. This always fails, leading me to restlessness, unfocused desire, waiting to be abated by having or getting something- anything. Sometimes (seldom, I am loath to admit) I simply wait, hoping it will reveal itself to my patience. The memory that stretches me to cosmic proportion and shrinks me to a detail of what is.”

“I to i”
whanau press 2002

. . . . .

I to i

Searching for the Thirteenth Moon: A Lunar Book of Days
This is an ongoing lunar book of days with a collection of instructions and stories as well as exercises for observation. This guide sets out a year in 13 lunar cycles describing in detail the phases in each cycle. It provides a space on each day for a teaching and observation guide with space for notes to chronicle the moon in one's own landscape. Women can use this guide and I ask them to observe the moon, their bodies' cycles and the changes in their landscape. Through this sharing we create a virtual Moon Circle.

This book of days is both my own reclaiming of the female calendar and also a reaching out to other women to help them name and count their own world. It is an act of activism for my gender, my cultures and my spirit that allows me to use my creative gifts to share and encourage the women who share with me. Naming and counting are acts of power. Indigenous people and women have historically lost much of that power. To reclaim a calendar that harmonizes women's bodies with the world around them is a powerful act and one that has impact on our relationship with the landscapes in which we live.

Please contact me if you are interested in being part of this Moon Circle.

Wokiksuye (Live and Remember),
Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees.
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© 2002 Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees, all rights reserved