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Thank you for being with us. ✨💜✨
Today is Memorial Day — a day with a lot of layers of meaning for me and others in the Intuitive Community Media Network.
We’ve been bringing together stories and experiences, learning materials, and excellent family and community resources — so powerful, the more we get to share them.
My Grandpa Cyril has been with us. He passed in 2002, and still is profoundly present here. He’s been so influential for Intuitive Edge and so many of our other projects.
Grandpa Cyril could build or fix anything.
He was a red-headed giant who read every kind of book and manual — practical, mechanical, spiritual, and all manner of other subjects.
He didn’t stay within the confines of one realm or ideology; he learned about them all.
He had a home workshop that was a wild dream to me when I was little. It had every kind of tool and many machines. He could make anything and repair anything with that workshop — and his intrinsic systems clarity.
When he was young, he finished high school in two-and-a-half years. At that time he was awarded scholarships to study to be a physicist; but remaining financial difficulties rerouted him.
He was drafted into the army in 1940 when World War II began.
He was eager to go overseas, but in consideration of his proficiencies he was stationed in the U.S. as a Top Sergeant to train troops in demolitions.
After World War II ended in 1945, he became a machinist by trade with precise training in metallurgy in 1947.
He was at Youngstown Sheet & Tube, in steel manufacturing, for three decades — including many years as the foreman of their 6 million dollar machine shop while his daughter (my mother) was in high school in the 1950s.
Youngstown Sheet & Tube asked him to set up their engineering department. He ran that department simultaneously while running the machine shop for about six years. Later, he was promoted to assistant superintendent.
The Lykes Corporation, a shipping company based in New Orleans, purchased the Youngstown steel mill in 1969 and completed the merger in 1976.
At the time of the acquisition, Youngstown Sheet & Tube was a profitable company — and the only steel company in the country making money. But because of the merger, the company was forced into bankruptcy.
Cyril and 5,000 other employees lost their pensions when the mill was closed.
Grandpa Cyril was full of care. I remember him as a wondrous life force — a vivid energy — extensive knowledge and subtle insight.
He was a deeply sensitive person. And he was hard and strong, too.
He taught me how to put on my shoes and how to make fried eggs in a skillet; what it meant to be without food, and always preserving and respecting what we have; the importance of storing good resources…
…well-kept toolsets; collaborative intelligence; resilient systems…
…the power of listening and watching, absorbing all the details; the power of keeping notes, knowing, and remembering; the power of shared memory.
He taught me the beauty and utility of engineering and architecture; the advantage in steady, stabilizing infrastructure; the durability of a sturdy supply base.
Solutions that work and skills that make strength.
Grandpa Cyril and Grandma Elizabeth taught me about gathering people into a place and honoring family and community. Nourishing the roots we’re regenerating from.
Tending our vital relationships — what’s real.
Sharing meals, smiles, stories and music.
Growing together.
Grandpa Cyril is a keen ancestor of Intuitive Edge. He’s continued saving lives long since he stopped being in a physical human body many years ago.
His wartime experiences have imparted so much to us; and the way he and his family carried one another through wartime, intense challenges, and resource scarcity.
It is many kinds of wars; the ones people think of as wars; and also the ones that many people don't recognize as wars.
Grandpa Cyril was and is in service to his country, to his communities, to his family, regenerating the life energy in the collective living body…
…As our warriors of many kinds are here now — many of them still here physically with us on the planet — and not so visible, not so recognized.
Countless laboring continuously, striving unacknowledged. All in service.
These warriors whose stories are so important and nutritive; who teach us so much about the world we’re in, ourselves, and one another.
This for us is Real Memory.
Deep thank-yous to Grandpa Cyril for what he taught me.
We’re wishing all a meaningful and resonant Memorial Day, and days unfolding.
The memories and honoring — we hold in our hearts for our colleagues who have risen in warriorship and are now rising in warriorship.
A lot of gratitude, a lot of love.
More very soon.
PS. Timestamp 250526-161625. 🕊🌿
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