Long ago, when all people and animals spoke the same language, there was only one tobacco plant in all the world. From far and wide they come for their tobacco. All was well, until the greedy Dagul’ku geese stole the plant and flew far to the south with it where they guarded it night and day. Before long the people and animals began to suffer greatly because the tobacco was gone. One such person was a beloved Elder woman who had become very ill, so thin and weak that it was felt by all that she would die soon, and could only be saved by their Sacred tobacco and it disturbed them all that they could not provide what was needed. So it was decided that they should hold a council and make a plan on how to retrieve the tobacco that had been taken from them. They all agreed that the animals should be sent to see if they could get it back.
One by one, the animals all tried to get the plant, but each time they were seen by the Dagul’ku geese and could not reach the Sacred tobacco plant. From the largest to the smallest, the Four Leggeds failed. Then one among them, the Mole decided he should be the one that he would go. Everyone thought this to be a good idea since he would tunnel under the ground to the plant and be able to get it back. So off he went tunneling ever closer to the Sacred tobaccoplant.
However the Dagul’ku geese were waiting for him for with their keen sense of hearing they heard him underneath as he was digging his tunnel and they waited at the plant for him to come out. As soon as he raised his head above ground the Dagul’ku geese attacked him and he went back to the village without the Sacred plant. The mood within the council was very somber after that. None could think of any way to get the Sacred tobacco plant away from the greedy Dagul’ku geese. No one wanted to go only to be attacked and sent back in defeat.
As the Hummingbird sat listening to all of the plans she had come up with one of her own. She boldly arose in front of the council and told them all that she could retrieve the Sacred plant. They all looked at her and laughed, “How could you do this, you are so small? How could you get to the Sacred plant past the Dagul’ki geese? She held her ground and told them that she knew she could do it and if they wanted they could test her. So they pointed to the middle of the meadow, they showed her a plant that all could see and said to her, “Go, sit on that plant, but do not let us see you getting there.”
No sooner than the words had been spoken then they all could see the little Hummingbird sitting atop the plant in the meadow. And then again before their very eyes she disappeared again only to reappear within the council circle with not one of them having seen her go or return. The all sat Stunned at the feat and skill she had shown them all and it was soon agreed to give this little warrior a chance. She wasted no time flying off straight to the Sacred plant, right under the noses of the Dagul’ki geese. She flew right up to the plant without them even suspecting her being there. Quick as a wink she used her long beak to cut off the top of the plant that had a few leaves and the seeds, then off she flew straight back to the council circle.
By this time the Elder woman was thought to have died, but smoke from the Sacred tobacco plant was blown into her nostrils and with a cry of “Tsa’lu”, she opened her eyes and regained her strength.
From that day forward, all looked with favor and respect to the little Hummingbird who managed to out wit the Dagul’ku geese to return the Sacred tobacco plant back for all to use.
In the beginning there was only blackness, no one could see anything. People kept walking into each other and stumbling around blindly. Soon they gathered to discuss the problem, “What we all need is to be able to see.” They all agreed but were not sure what to do, they needed to find light.
Fox said he knew others on the other side of the world who had plenty of light, but they were too greedy to share it with anyone. Possum said he would be glad to steal a little of it. “I have a bushy tail, I could hide the light inside all that fur.” It was agreed and decided he could try to get some light for them all, so he set out for the other side of the world. There he found the sun hanging in a tree and lighting everything up. He quietly crept over to the sun taking from it a tiny piece of light and stuffing it into his tail. But the light was too hot and it burned all his fur. Soon the people discovered his theft and took back the light, and ever since, Possum’s tail has been bald.
“I will try,” said Buzzard. “I know better than to hide a piece of stolen light in my tail, I will place it on the top of my head.” He flew to the other side of the world and swooped straight into the sun seizing it with his claws. He then placed it on his head, where it proceeded to burn all his head feathers off. The people seeing him on fire and trying to steal what was theirs, grabbed the sun away from him, and ever since that time Buzzard’s head has remained bald.
Grandmother Spider said, “I will try!” So she set about the task of making a thick walled pot out of clay. Next she spun a web reaching all the way to the other side of the world. The fact that Grandmother Spider was so small, none of the people in the village of the sun even saw her coming. Quickly Grandmother Spider snatched up the sun and placed it in the bowl of clay carrying it back home along one of the strong strands of her web. Now her side of the world had light, and everyone rejoiced.
Grandmother Spider brought not only the sun to the Cherokee, but fire with it and she taught the Cherokee people the art of making pottery!
So this today I am writing about as I am on a self imposed sabbatical for a few weeks. Oh and why am I doing this? Well the answer is simple, should be simple for all of you as well, I am celebrating me! Why? Well why not?
We all need to take ownership of us… meaning the good stuff that we have accomplished, the other stuff we need to accept and work on, and all the in-between! We SHOULD be proud of ourselves and the ability we all have to change what needs to be changed, understand we are all but human and all our blessings in our lives. Who we are is important, as we imprint on the entire world around us.
We need to also remember that we need to rest, do things for ourselves so we can replenish our minds, bodies and our spirits. If we don’t do that, who the heck will? It is not selfish to take care of yourself, nor should we put ourselves last. We must embrace the idea of we all matter in the bigger scope of things. I hear all the time from people that it really doesn’t matter what they do or say… my reply always is, But it certainly does matter!
How Does it matter? Well there are people in our lives, situations in our lives, communities on our lives… all that without us the dynamic would be different. Take for example if you are a healthcare worker in a hospital, there are people that depend on you to give them care. Garbage Collectors, yes you read it right… if we didn’t have them filling those jobs what would happen to the garbage we create? How about musicians? Well don’t know about ya’ll but music feeds my soul when sometimes other things won’t. What of teachers? Need I explain that? Teachers share lessons with us, lessons no matter if they are good teachers or not so great teachers, they teach us how to think for ourselves and save things that resonate with us on our walk.
The list goes on and on too many examples to list them all. So when you stop[ and think about yourself, even in darker times… remember that your light is inside of you. How bright it burns is up to each of us.
If we choose to ignore tasking care of ourselves, we can not bee there for things that pop up that need to be tended to. We were taught growing up that we take care of everything and everyone before taking care of ourselves. That can not be farther from the truth. We must take care of self, our minds, our physical and spiritual sides. No one else is gonna do it better than us. When was the last time you took a look in the mirror and said, “Hey Great Job!”?????
So life is a great novel that is being written about each and everyone of us. Only thing we need to remember is that we are all the authors of those stories. Each second of our lives, we have the ability to do our best. When our best doesn’t work, we need to take a break and recognize we need to not feel guilty of wanting to take care of self.
I have an acquaintance that I swear she has wings on her feet. Always giving of herself, always trying to make the world better, very little of taking care of herself just because. Like it’s a internal drive that pushes her constantly moving. Then all of a sudden the “stop button” happens. It’s the Universe’s way of saying enough! Stop and care for You! Funny upon writing those words I realize there are a few of my friends going through this all at the same time.
Seriously though, we are all needed. There is great chaos in the world at this time. The world is very shadowed. It causes so many to feel drained and fill with anxiety. When it does take stock in yourself, celebrating how you are an amazing soul doing there best in a very harsh crazy but wonderful world!
Talk to the Animals! If you are old like me you will remember the Movie Dr. Dolittle, Disney even made their own version with Eddie Murphy. However, I remember it in a different way as all my life I thought everyone could hear and talk with animals… all creatures for that matter. So much so my Mom started calling me Dr. Dolittle because I brought home every creature imaginable. From Bats and Frogs to Cats and Dogs, see I even rhyme the same! But seriously I always could hear and feel the emotions and thoughts they would share with me.
I often get asked, what does going on with my dog, or turtle? For me it is simple, because I see them and hear them… because all creatures matter to me. The thing is we can all learn a thing or two from the creatures of the world even the tiniest ant. So how can you hear them? Well the biggest challenge is to get out of your own way. What does that mean? It means that people in todays world are mostly wrapped up in self and don’t see the life around them. Sorta like they are missing the point, which is we need to find our compassion and empathy for all living things, not just the things that are about self.
Take the Elephants for example. Did you know that they are so intelligent and have emotions that match human feelings? Did you know they grieve and honor their members of their families? Do you ever stop and watch an anthill that ants created and wonder at how they are all working together to allow their community to thrive? So many lessons we could learn from them. There has even been instances when a animal takes in and cares for a creature of another species. It’s fascinating to say the least.
So how can you do it? How can you understand them talking or what they want? Well all you have to do is slow down long enough to understand their behavior, be willing to spend time with them and they will share with you many things. Some even have a sense of humor. What did I just say? Yes animas like to play, they also pout, grieve, love and dislike. We are all capable of it… it’s whether or not we want to take the time to.
Orcas for instance, they used to call them Killer Whales, I hated that name… they are Orcas an amazing creature that is fiercely protective of their pod, their young ones. They are the Guardians of the Oceans and Knowledge.
Their songs speak to us of healing from deep within our souls. Listen as they begin calling in positive vibrations of thought and sound. Orca’s guide us through the depths of our own emotions allowing us to explore and mend self more effortlessly by moving with the waves of life, rather than against. They help us access the Ancestor’s knowledge that is buried deep within our own DNA that is the key to all that is Sacred.
Orca shares about how we need to search your soul… looking inward is the only way that we can move forward in positive motions at this time. They teach us to understand self and give us a clear view to set our intention of what is needed in the situation for the highest good. Orca share that confronting our emotions that are out of control by making connections that are needed between our conscious and subconscious to bring about the balance we need in our Sacred Hoops.
Every Creature has purpose… has lessons that we can learn by listening and observing them as they go through their own daily lives. Another question I often get asked is, what is my totem? I am simply going to give you the response….”We don’t choose our totems. Our totems choose us!” This is one of the first basic concepts of Totems. Totems are hard to explain at times, but what we need to understand is what a totem is before we can comprehend what it means to follow their teachings. Once we understand the concept, it helps us to learn the messages they then have to offer and teach us.
Animals show up to us as a spiritual sign or entity. They come to share and teach the knowledge they hold to help and assist us with our own lives, how to relate to others and the world around us. Animals are not worshiped, we follow the teachings they offer, we incorporate the way they deal with life into our own to help us move in positive steps on our paths. We don’t control them and often it is difficult to explain our draw or affinity to them… yet there is a deep connection inside of us that responds to them when the show up in our lives. Why is this… because it simply is.
So look at your lives, open your hearts and cherish the things the Creatures great and small share with us. Look to them to assist you with your own lives, and every now and then Talk to Them because they love to interact!
I have been asked the story of the Spiritwalkers so I thought I would take some time to share with you all.
As an Artist and a Spiritual Reader when I work in any medium artistically, I allow spirit to work through me. I let the work or piece tell its own story. With wood, it leads me to pull the story from it, one that is buried deep within the grain. With clay it comes out as Spiritwalkers, spirit manifesting itself and bringing energy to each sculpture that is formed. I can try to create something I want, but that stops two seconds into the work, for Spirit says uh uh…
When I am done it whispers a name, and is very specific. Once a person finds it or is called to the individual piece, it then offers a blessings as it makes that connection with the person it is going to. No two are ever the same, they tell me what is needed to be added, perhaps a crystal or sweetgrass. some cedar or leather. I never know until it is completed. I then fire them and they are ready to share the knowledge they brought through with the ones they call to.
The energies can be felt from them are very different from each other, and for the most part they are extremely bossy with me to complete them. I know to some this may sound crazy, and there are days i wonder about it myself…But I can tell you that I have been schooled over and over again by these “Little People” of the Spirit world. And it has been given to me as one of the many things I am to share with the world. New ones are being created and others have found their homes.
* I am currently working on new ones that will be available soon!
There is so much violence in the world that often people find themselves caught up in it and in this process they loose themselves. By that I mean they get lost deep inside, pushed their by fear and loss of self worth.
The lesson of self Love is a tough one for victims of abuse, assault but part of the process and in order to allow healing to begin, we often have to release and find self acceptance again. To learn to Love self, one of the hardest lessons many of us have to learn.
The following is a story I was told long ago, and the lesson within is strong. I hope that all those that need to read and understand the lesson do, and understand there is no judgement involved in our own lives that is harsher than self judgement. Love begins with Self….
There once was a woman called Black Corn. She lived in a village that was surrounded by amazing beauty. It was plain to see everywhere, in the forest, in the plains, in the sky above and upon the earth below. Black Corn herself was extremely tall, in fact she was taller than all of the other women of her village, and truth be told she was taller than most of the men as well. She was very strong yet fair to see. however within her was hidden deeper darker emotions that were filled with discontent, doubt, anger and more than is healthy for people to live with day to day.
Black Corn was very unhappy. Her heart was filled with love yet could not seem to find the one to give it to. All she wanted was to love someone and have someone love her in return. She loved her family and people of the village dearly and did all she could for them, even to the point of sacrificing her own wants to help others. Many Gifts she had been given by Creator, but could not seem to find them when she needed them the most. Others laughed at her for things she did not understand and in turn began believing in what was being said about her. At first with doubt, then willingly that the lies and the actions were deserved.
When she looked upon her reflection in the surface of the water, she would think about all the negatives that had been spoken to her, “you are too direct, too tall, too strong, you show too much passion, too much love, too much everything, and no one wants what you have to give!” Yet the love she held inside for all the People was full to bursting within her heart and all she wanted was someone who would accept her love, for the People to accept her and love her for who she was.
Despair and heartache filled her until one day she awoke as if in a dream, “Why is it this way? What did I do that was so awful that I should be treated in this manner?” She sat looking deep inside for an answer to these questions. She went beyond all of the hurt, all of the pain that had been put upon her, past the men who had used her without her consent breaking her spirit. So many judgments had been passed on her but none so harsh as what she had passed upon herself. The deeper she looked, the uglier it became until it rose to rage! But soon she realized that this too was illusion. The anger, the rage was all self deception, a shield she had put in place in order to protect herself from what laid within.
Soon she decided that no longer would she hide behind the rage and the sorrow that she had held onto over the years and it washed over her like a tidal wave as she stood defenseless in its path. She no longer had the strength to fight it, no shield to protect her any longer. Out she ran into the forest, hearing the tiny voice inside screaming in agony, dying, dying, dying, wanting to scream out loud, knowing that all she had ever felt she was that she was slowly dying a painful death. Finally she cried out clutching at the pain in her chest, willing herself to slip away. She screamed out in pain and agony, begging for Creator to take her away from this pain.
“Creator, please I can not bear this life, this pain any more for it is simply too much, Please, please, take me home, please let me have peace!” And when she had finished crying out these words and prayers all of the ugliness that was inside her had been given voice, a sound so awful to hear that not even the creatures made a sound out of respect for her pain. She laid down on the forest floor allowing it to wrap around her body as her very soul felt as though it had been ripped open lying before the Creator. It was at that moment she finally saw the truth.
It began when she was 7 summers old; she would go into the forest to play and one day a strange man came upon her and began to speak with her. His words were intriguing and he spoke of grown-up things that she liked to hear about. Eventually this stranger seduced her as a child, and as a child, not knowing any better, had allowed it. Many years would pass before Black Corn realized what had been done to her, and when she did realize, she issued a judgment so severe upon herself that she began to believe that she was unworthy of love. She lost all respect for herself and, indeed, this is what she projected unknowingly to everyone she came into contact with. The voices of the others that would taunt her were really reflections of her own voice within that she could not, until now, listen to.
In that moment laying on the forest floor, she began to see with clarity what was that made the People treat her as they were, and with that knowing, she began to cry, heart wrenching cries that tore at the very fabric of her soul and thus began the cleansing process from within. She found that while she had forgiven that strange man his trespass against her, placing blame on herself and creating in a fantasy in her mind that she had been the victim, all the while feeling the guilt of the participant. There had been one other who had used her in this fashion, a relative, who did not know of the first stranger. But by then, the damage to her soul had been done and, while not realizing why it was so, she allowed herself to be degraded even more by this second man. After that, there was no room for self-respect or self love, feeling as she did that she was unworthy for the things she had done.
After the sobbing had subsided, Black Corn began to feel differently, having accepted everything that was ugly inside of her, she began to heal. Finally, after all of these years it was released. It took a long time, but finally she was able to understand and began to love herself as well as forgive those who took her unfairly and in bad faith, took her innocence and made something ugly out of it. With all that was released there was now room for love to enter and fill her soul. All of the love she wanted to give the People was the love that she had been denying herself. Once she could learn to love herself and accept herself, she could also love the People much more than she ever thought possible, and the People rejoiced! For they had always loved Black Corn, but because she did not love herself she could not see this and probably never would have if she had not asked herself “why am I being treated this way?”
The answer was within her all the time….Love…Love of Self. This was Creator’s answer to her prayers.
I offer prayer for all those that are victims of abuse and violence, that they too shall find Love in the souls for themselves and that the shame, the unforgiving emotions that they place upon themselves are released and replaced with the knowing that they too are loved and worthy of love. Enabling them to move to more positive places within their lives.
For the past ten years I have not touched a canvas, not touched oils, not touched my palette knives to begin a new painting. To start a process of Healing again. I have not been in balance with the Divine energies that help us all to heal. Doesn’t matter if it is Spiritual, Mind or body that needs healing… it hasn’t happened… until now.
So what does that mean for others? Others that struggle, that have pain, that are hiding in a place of shadows and depression. It means we need to be aware that anything is possible. Healing is possible. That we are not overlooked by the Universe and all the Spirits that dwell within our world, yet unseen. So how can we heal? How can we balance when life knocks us for a loop, for a journey we are not happy to walkthrough? Well it’s a process.
Healing … it’s a rough thing to walk through. No matter what we have to heal from, ’tis the same, we need to allow it in. Sometimes we get so used to the things that keep us out of balance, we hang on to it like a life raft. We feel as though if we let it go, we will drown. Because of this we need to sit and examine what is it that put us there in the first place. So we can clean the wound out in order to let more positive in and receive what it is we need to have us actually heal. We get into a place of all we know is pain… it doesn’t ever change, and we keep telling ourselves we will never get better. The thing is though, we can get better, it’s just that we need to allow it in to happen. We all deserve that, no matter who we are, we are entitled to that.
I am living proof it happens. The past 7 years or so I have been thrown off kilter physically and emotionally. The place we reach by continuing to visualize ourselves still in pain, off balance in everything to do with our lives. By doing that, how can we even begin a process of healing?.. We unknowingly allow it to be the only thing we can imagine. So we need to learn to change the narratives, picture ourselves healthy and whole. To bring positives into our sacred circles. When we stop having our thoughts focused on negatives and deal with things one step at a time is when we begin to change. We begin to see that things don’t have to be shadowed, we can allow the light in so to speak, and accept that the negatives, the unhealthy things about our lives we can look at clearly and say I don’t want to have this define my life. I choose to open to positive, to healing… to accept the healings from where ever they come from.
So Healing is also a place of sorrow, yet still will lead us carrying less burdens. Learning to breathe deeply to calm our minds and bodies. Sit in a place of calm and just breathe, blocking out the world around us… and you will feel your entire self relax. This is the starting point. Own who we are. Stand in our own power! Realizing that we control how and when we react to the world around us and within our circles.
Divine Energies, are always near… allow yourself to feel the healings they share with us all. Remain with Hope and Faith that anything is possible if we only allow it to be. So start the process… and allow it to be.
Long ago, when all people and animals spoke the same language, there was only one tobacco plant in all the world. From far and wide they come for their tobacco. All was well, until the greedy Dagul’ku geese stole the plant and flew far to the south with it where they guarded it night and day. Before long the people and animals began to suffer greatly because the tobacco was gone. One such person was a beloved Elder woman who had become very ill, so thin and weak that it was felt by all that she would die soon, and could only be saved by their Sacred tobacco and it disturbed them all that they could not provide what was needed. So it was decided that they should hold a council and make a plan on how to retrieve the tobacco that had been taken from them. They all agreed that the animals should be sent to see if they could get it back.
