What Is Crystal Marie: Canary Rising?

Originally opened for subscribers to my Patreons blog, my Facebook group had been largely inactive over the past year, as I hit the pause button on my Patreons account.

Recently I renamed the group,  with the decision to expand and change the intent  of how I use it. Now widely available to anyone who wants to join, a respite for all creatives in the midst of an uncertain world.

I'll be writing another blog post with more details on where I've been the last few months, and the direction I am taking, but today I wanted to share a manifesto of sorts, written to explain the meaning behind the name - Crystal Marie: Canary Rising.
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Canaries were historically used by miners as an early warning system to toxins that were building in the air, making it unsafe for the men to breath. If a canary stopped singing and passed out, they knew they needed to get to safety. In that vein, the term "Canary in the coal mine" has been adapted by many in the medical professions to describe the chronic illness packaging that I have - where I am effected first, harder, and more severely than other people will be in an environment where there are toxins, in the food or the air around me.

The term was enlightening, but it always bothered me. It was basically a death sentence for the canary and meant they were kept in cages for the benefit of others. But I also began to connect to the Canary imagery. It drew me back time and time again.

Reading about these little birds, I found that Canaries are members of the Finch family. They are songbirds, bred and revered for their beautiful melodies and considered the most prized songbirds in the family. 

The term to "Sing like a Canary" means you've ratted someone out. It means you are a snitch. But it means you've told the truth about that person to the authorities. A truth they didn't want you to tell. 

With all of these ideas and their symbolic meaning in mind, came the group name and the following manifesto - still being tweaked a bit, but solid enough to share with you:

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Canaries:

Many of us so called introverts spend so much time alone in our favorite spaces because we are so sensitive that being out there in the world so much hurts. We are empathetic beings, we pick up on the emotional currents in the atmosphere, we read insincerity from a mile away. We get pulled in by the story of the underdog and make it our mission to call out what is not right.

We have a heightened awareness to what is toxic, in food, in the environment, in the legal system, the infrastructure of society, in our spouses, partners, friends, and the world around us.

We stay in relationships longer than we should, because we are sensitive to the potential of our partners and friends, even when they can’t see it. We are sensitive to hypocrisy, sensitive to conflict, sensitive to injustice, and sensitive to speaking and understanding deep truths. 

We are not too much. We are not pushovers, or shy, or inept. We are not snowflakes, or pansies. We are not boring, or uninteresting. We have colorful, beautiful, creative, inner lives full of thoughts, hopes, dreams, for ourselves and for each other. We have important things to say when we open our mouths if only the world would listen. 

We are poets, and dreamers, artists, and writers, musicians, and makers. We are not weirdos. We are Canaries.

They took us underground, and kept us in cages. They tried to take advantage of our talents for their own limitations. 

We stopped singing when the air was toxic. 

We lost hope as the light grew distant. 

We nearly died in the caves they kept us. 

We let their lies become our binding mantra. 

We lost our way when we forgot our own voices. 

In that place where the darkness met The Light, they heard our song and knew it rang with truth. 

Light that spills out, reveals everything. Seeps into the darkest places. 

Light that envelopes what is dark and cracks it open to redeem the untold story inside. 

Light that beckons the soul to the surface, clears the way, warms, nourishes, creates life. 

Finding The Truth in that Light revealed that the voices weren’t in “they” – they were in me.  The voices that kept me in that cage weren’t coming from outside of me anymore. They were born at a time when I needed their support and a place of safety. That cage, at first felt like a respite. 

But then I grew, because of The Light and the song in my own breast. 

I grew beyond those bars, and what felt safe then began to feel like the very thing I feared. 

And I was right, I feared the darkness and I looked around and all I saw was dark. 

I feared death, and I looked around and all I saw was death. 

Those I tried to help by staying right there in that cage, those I gathered and convinced to join me inside those bars, began to fade. 

It wasn’t until I came to realize that I had The Truth inside of me, that my song began to rise. 

My song. The Truth gave me.

My song. The Truth gave me.

My song. The Truth gave me. 

My song. The Truth gave me my song. 

When I opened my mouth and began to sing my song I could see. I could see the only lock on that cage door existed in my mind. 

If I seem too big to you, it isn’t because I’ve made myself too big. 

It is because you’ve been locked inside your own cages and made yourselves too small.

The world doesn’t need more of us locked in cages, the world needs us to be free. 

We are poets, and dreamers, artists, and writers, musicians, and makers. We are humans. 

We are not victims. We are canaries. 

And we are rising.

Canary Rising. 

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If this description fits you - come on over to the group on Facebook and join us. There is room for you at the table!