The Red Road…
I am often asked, how do I walk the Red Road…will you teach me? Or where can I read about what I need to do to walk it. I also have heard many of the tribal People speak of it as the “Good Red Road” , or when I speak with my Elders or tribal neighbors we refer to it as the Red Road…
Lately to me it strikes me as odd, that we are trying to promote the Red Road on one hand… and trying to eliminate the word Red in many other ways. There are those willing to teach others as it was handed down to us, so that people will be able live more balanced and honorable, happy lives, and those that feel we should hold on tightly to all we have been taught because as it stands, many have treated our People badly. It is an interesting dilemma to ponder for sure.
Yet getting back to the main point, is what the Red Road truly is. For me that is about a way of life, a spiritual way of being. If we stop and take a moment we will find that this is a thought process that is found often in similar forms within many different cultures, and called by many different names all depending on your point of view or location of where one lives for that matter.
The bottom line again for me, is it is about the way we live as human. Our connections to the world around us and to the Creator are what will make us weak or strong. The rituals we perform daily in prayer and thought whether we are Native American, Asian, French, Canadian, Italian, Irish, Latino, African, Christian or Jew, Buddhist or Protestant, Islamic or any other spiritual background or faith is what forms the person we are in front of the world, and who we are in front of that higher power of the Creator God.
Strip the material away from any of us and what do we have? We have but a humble human standing naked for the entire world to see. Although the color of our skins may be different and our homes may be on the opposite side of the world…we all are made up of water, we all breathe air, we all need to eat food to sustain ourselves, we all share the world…and the main thing we all have in common is when we are cut we bleed…and the color of our blood is Red.
So when I think of the Red Road… it is about how all humans walk this world, it is how the four leggeds travel alongside of us, the winged ones and the swimmers co exist with us all, it is about how we are to treat each other as humans, it is about honor and respect, for ourselves and others. It is about the Good Red Road, a healthy path of life. One that is in balance with all that is.
So how does one walk it? Well we are to walk it with respect and honor for the gift that it is. To be thankful for all our blessings, all the miracles of life large and small, to remember we are but a guest here during our lifetime, and that we are one of many guests here now and to come. Think of it as Sacred, then listen to the Ancestors as they share the lessons and wisdom’s of old… and remember it is a good day to be alive and Honor the Sacred of All that Is, then take one step at a time and walk that Red Road.
Blessings
~ bear Medicinewalker
