Fran Dancing Feather

The subliminal place within us is beneath the hardwood floor of our consciousness. The subliminal is the unconscious behavior, desires and the place of dreams. For deep healing to occur, it does best to sink beneath the consciousness of our daily reality. It can be an exciting journey to try to discover all the ways Creation attempts to reach inside us to create miraculous events. The most romantic and powerful poetry is written in the natural world. Read the rest of this entry »

We were committed. The fire had been lit at sunset that would burn throughout the deepest, coldest and longest night of the year. It was the Solstice time when we would honor the frozen earth. We were committed to stand barefoot on the icy ground around the fire and pray. These are ancient scared rites and if they are done properly, no one suffers but all are renewed by the experience of the ceremony. Holy herbs are offered and burned as we sing in a language that is nearly forgotten in the modern world. We were near the top of the sacred mountain where the Creator is known by the local Tribe (in English) as the “Greatness of All Things”. We were sober natives from various Tribes and we made our prayers in the wilderness where we would remain unobserved by outsiders. The purpose of our prayers was for the next seven generations of the keepers of the mother earth, to have the strength to endure the coldest winds of winter and keep our traditions alive. They were also for our elders to survive this years winter purification and for our ancestors who have gone before us. Read the rest of this entry »

The icy cold dawn kisses my cheeks with the blush of the Winter Purification. Bundled tight in snow gear, I walk fast to the upper mesa. Heavy dark clouds hide the sunrise and morning barely glows awake with the threat of a blizzard. Occasional shafts of purple illuminate the road and what is left of the dead leaves of sycamore and mulberry. Ah, the ever-living pines that grace the top of the trail are silhouetted black instead of green against a steel colored sky. My heart pounds with the accelerated walking, my commitment to a strong durable winter body. I will prevail over the cold months and honor the purification time. Slim and seemingly delicate deer pass by bounding through the brush. Long ago my ancestors lived in longhouses in the northeastern woodlands without forced-air heating or memory-foam beds. They hunted the fat deer and elk and walked everywhere. We are made for walking and honoring the seasons, whatever they may bring. We were made to respect the mother earth and all her passing moods of change. Read the rest of this entry »

We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience but rather spiritual beings having a physical experience. Our spirits are eternal and our experiences are transitory. We are on a journey—a physical journey that is a part of forever. If we change the world in even the smallest way, let that change bear the mark of our love and foreverness. If we see ourselves as eternal, we are more likely to relax and enjoy the ride instead of becoming stressed and anxious in the use of our time. When we loose ourselves to resentments and shame, we waste those precious moments and hours of life that we could have spent happy, joyous and free. We are all plagued by grudges at times but we have the 12 steps to overcome these things. There are no unique resentments. They are all the same. They are fueled by the fear that we will not get something we want or that we will loose something we cherish. Loosing things we love and not always getting what we want is life-on-life’s terms. We learn in recovery to strive for success but to leave the outcome to our Creator. Read the rest of this entry »

The earth is a gift from our Creator and it is our responsibility to do all we can to protect and defend her for as long as the next seven generations. She gives us every material thing there is. She provides both the products of nature and the elemental ingredients for everything man-made as well. She is the keeper of the sacred medicines—the herbal remedies, fruits and vegetables, grains and spices. Shaken Skunk said that every medicine to cure every single illness of humanity, both known illnesses and unknown illnesses, exists within a two-square-mile area of any mountain slope. The medicine healer knows where, when and how to harvest them. She said that when the harvester is worthy, the medicines they require will be revealed to them. If the harvester is not of “good spiritual heart” the medicines will hide from them. The earth also provides building materials for our homes and furniture and fibers for cloth used to make clothing. The earth provides animals for us to hunt and eat and use the hides for drums, warm clothes, moccasins and the bones for tools. She provides minerals and the elements of fire, water and wind. If we follow the seasons and watch the night sky, we will know when to plant and harvest, rest and work. Read the rest of this entry »

The Cherokee have a saying; “Listen! Or your tongue will make you deaf.”

Listening is a ceremony, only when we listen with our whole attention. It is a time for gathering seeds of wisdom. We can go out in nature where the wilderness is pristine, to the quietest place we can find. We can sit there and listen to the quiet until it becomes filled with the secret sounds of Creation. Listen until the business in our head becomes less busy. Listen to the tiny sounds of the earth. A bird in the distance or tiny creatures moving through the woodlands can capture our senses if we become quiet enough. If we listen deeply we can hear our own breathing and feel the beat of our own heart. This is meditation. There may be water nearby or a breeze in the leaves or pine needles or the sound of footfalls on bark as a squirrel scampers towards the treetop. Read the rest of this entry »

Community means people working together for the highest good of all concerned. I was taught that I am related to all members of my community—all the people, animals, botanicals and minerals. All natural things of the planet are all my relations. I was at a Tribal community meeting one summer evening and an elder named Katherine was speaking to the youth. She was telling them not to paint graffiti on the “stone people” because they are our oldest living relations. They are the ancients among us. We do not paint gang symbols on the ancients because it is disrespectful. She talked a long time about the stone people and how they help us and support us in our lives. She talked about the beauty of the large stones and boulders around the reservation who live among us and the wisdom inside them. I had heard before that the stones are alive but never really gave it much thought until I heard Katherine tell her stories. I have developed a greater love for the great and small stones of the earth since hearing her speak. A good storyteller holds the attention of his or her audience. When they speak there is love in their words and they make eye contact with their listeners. Katherine’s name bears mentioning because she passed away recently. Even though we moved away several years ago, I felt bad when another elder called to tell me about Katherine’s passing. The other elder wondered how the community would get along without her. She said she didn’t think anyone else could ever take her place in the community. It’s true that none of us will ever be Katherine but we did hear her stories and it’s our responsibility to pass them on to others. Read the rest of this entry »

Bear is the sacred dreamer. Things change when Bear comes into our lives. As the largest land mammal Bear is at the top of the food chain and so safe from other predators yet not a killer by nature. Bear is omnivorous with a varied diet that includes plants and small animals. Bears are mostly loners with the exception of courting times or when females are raising their young. They are excellent climbers and swimmers and mostly active during the daytime. They can run as fast as thirty miles per hour and have an extraordinary sense of smell. Some bears forage during the autumn on fermented fruit which affects their behavior, as they eat huge amounts of vegetation in preparation for the lazy winter, where they remain in caves or burrows most of the time. Because of human encroachment, bears are becoming an endangered species. Read the rest of this entry »

The quickest way to overcome the dark thoughts that can plague us in recovery, is to serve others. When we begin to serve others in an altruistic lifestyle, we gain the wisdom that everything can change. Each moment, hour, day, night, week, month, year and even our entire lives become renewed with hope and the knowledge that we can find happiness and fulfillment. The quality of this physical life is based on how and where we focus our attention. If we focus on the solutions we get the solutions we need and desire. How can we best serve ourselves and others? When people talk about the pains of living we offer the tools of recovery. The twelve steps are the supernatural path out of the darkness and into the light of healing every part of the body, mind and spirit of ourselves and those around us. It is suggested that the fellowship is found in the meetings-before-the-meetings and the meetings-after-the-meetings, when everyone just hangs around waiting for the meeting to start and after it’s over. If we give ourselves and others that extra half hour before and after, we are given the opportunity to observe, suggest, help and love one another beyond our ability during the actual structured meeting. Fellowship is vital to our need to serve. Read the rest of this entry »

Like the mighty fists of Creation, great huge earthen wedges of every shape and size, grace the mother earth. From the highest peaks of the Andes to the gentlest slopes beneath the deepest waters of the planet, mountains shape the landscape. One Creation story tells of the powerful wing feathers of the great eagle who formed and shaped the muddy ground of the newly formed earth with his strong power feathers while banked in flight. The pointed feathers cut the canyons and dragged moist ground over itself to form the highest peaks and towering buttes and precipices of our land. From the sacred mountain of the Seneca, to Bear Butte in South Dakota, The Sangre de Cristo in New Mexico and all the way to the Big Bear mountain in southern California, we native peoples all have our mountains which we claim are sacred. Perhaps all great and beautiful mountains are sacred after all. Read the rest of this entry »