wah'wala

To walk in humility

I haven’t been able to produce any words since the election and the loss of my Kickstarter hopes. I was in a dark place. Praying for my own end because I felt no hope. Then I was reminded of two concepts taught to me by my elders.

The first is humility, Wah’Wala, in Lakota. We must be humble enough to give up what we WANT and listen for what we NEED. I was filled with loathing, hatred, violence, grief. I couldn’t see straight. It was all about me. I am returning to Wah’wala.

The second has to do about a time when I was young, while visiting my Inupiat elder, and having met a Dine’ Road Man. He lived a simple life traveling the State or nearby States healing people with his medicine. In my naivete’ I believed his medicine was the peyote he utilized in ceremony. But as I spent more time with him I realized that his medicine was his pure unadulterated love.

He loved his wife. He loved his children. He loved the plants that agreed to work with him. He loved all humans. He loved animals and plants. He loved The Mother. There is so very much he taught me about love and healing…which can be summarized best in a statement he made to me one day as we stood outside in the warm sun.

He called me nephew. He reached down and pulled out one blade of grass, “Nephew, healing is about love. If you deeply and truly love this earth and all of her children, if you have love for the person who has come to you for healing, then you can heal them using only this blade of grass.”

“Your love of self. Your love of the person asking for healing. Your love of all things. The love the grass has for you. The love the grass has for the person asking for healing. The love the grass has for all things. THAT tincture of love is the medicine nephew. It is all that you need. The rest is juggling.”

On this Thanksgiving day, lost in the sorrow of violence, death, genocide and utter stupidity I could not think of anything to write. For two weeks actually I’ve been immobilized by our bizarro country. Then I remembered my Dine’ Uncle and the prayer he shared that will heal all things.

Happy Thanksgiving to you.

Hozho

In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again

Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful…