Weaving Life

Today as I meditated by the Mississippi River, I remembered my grandfather. I found myself laying just like he used to so many times - with one leg over the other knee. He would sit with his back against a pile of blankets. Within those blankets, he would hide treats like peaches, apples and sweets. He would carefully slice the fruits and savor the taste as if that was the first time he was eating it. I'd also get a few slices. One of many things he shared with me. My favorites were outings with him on his white horse and his dog. We'd stop for lunch and he would cook up yucca bulbs and at times prairie dogs. I ate the bulbs while he ate the prairie dogs. I couldn't bring myself to put something in my mouth that was looking at me just a moment before. He loved canned sardines with saltine crackers. I did too.

I wonder what he would say now as we are faced with the virus. During the 1918 pandemic, he was a full time practicing medicine man and helped his people survive it. His solution was always to restore balance with oneself, others and the elements of nature. If one part/thread of the web was not strong, it was the responsibility of the five fingered to bring (Hozho) balance, love, harmony, joy back into the web. Ever since he was 14 years old, he trained to be a medicine man fully equipped with songs, rituals (ceremonies), prayers, teachings and chants that replenished beauty and healing.

He would say, to restore hozho to all especially where we see broken pieces. Pieces that were seen from all perspectives each holding their own trauma(s). As my right knee gave support to my left leg, I realized once again that our ancestors are there making themselves accessible to our needs. They are always willing to help as they continue to love us from where they are. Let's ask them for help.

Several years ago, I started this page, "Weaving Life" in hopes of sharing life experiences that we are all weaving together. But a few interruptions transpired - colon cancer and becoming a grandmother that set the page on the back burner. It's time to focus on it once again and I hope that you all can join me.

Yes, we are all interwoven together in life, knowledge, experiences, and so many other ways. Presently, there's an entity that has arrived to test this connectedness/relatedness. A wise grandmother who lived to be 104 relayed to me a few hours before she moved on into the next world that she was just realizing that she had only touched on a small portion of her potential. There was so much more to her that could have been explored, awaken, and connected to. This coming from a person who lived her life as full as any human could possibly live, or so I thought. She was a mother, grandmother and medicine woman who helped so many with their health, rituals, missing persons, animals, and so forth. I was under this thought that she lived beyond what was expected of any human on earth. I was a bit off.

A message that our inner wisdom, knowing, potential or whatever you might call it is not only massive but limitless. That it is capable of so much. Some of it beyond our own understandings. The limits are only defined by our own will and how much or how far we are wiling to travel within ourselves. The time to do so is upon us, it seems. Time to find out how we have gifts that are interwoven and if reconnected can move any entities that arises that tries us. Each time, I meditate, love permeates. So, love it is. I am posting a video of one of my favorite songs of love. I have many songs about this powerful emotion that drives us in so many ways. But I will begin with one from my people. This is a Dine (Navajo) song about giving thanks. respect, love, and awareness to the early morning dawn acknowledging that there is another day to be lived. Another day to experience all that is in mother nature, the air, mountains, the Holy people, and giving gratitude for another restful and replenishing sleep. PLEASE POST YOUR OWN FAVORITE SONG ABOUT LOVE AND IF YOU FEEL LIKE TELLING WHY, DO SO. THANK YOU! AHEE'HEE.

Radmilla Cody - A Beautiful Dawn Music Video Director: Klee Benally of Indigenous Action Media

I shoveled my driveway! Let me tell you why that draws quite an excitement through me. Two years ago today, I was facing colon surgery after being diagnosed with stage three colon cancer. It is taking a while to return back to some kind of physical form in terms of strength and endurance. It's a gradual process and one must maintain vigil to one's pace and humanness. I guess I could hire someone to shovel for me or call on a friend, but something inside me urges me on, encouraging me that "I can do it!" Yes, our spirit whose gifts are limitless cheers us on and makes us feel that we can climb mountains. But we must pay attention to our humanness where shortcomings and imbalances live. It's so gratifying, though when we do tasks and feats that we are not sure about. I cherish the time that I had in shoveling as it had positives. FIrst, I am connecting with "snow" - the gift from our mother, Second, I am taking care of what I was given. The home where I am realizing so many blessings. We, humans, are pitiful. It is our animal relations who are so in touch with nature and all its creations. A bird lives in a nest simply made from what it only needs. No private rooms for bathing, eating and sleeping needed. She lives within her means. We do not. As I shovel, I think about those kinds of things and offer my gratitude for being allowed certain privileges. The webs that we have made at times are not exactly the ones made for us. But we adjust, adapt and try our best in all our efforts. We offer thanks for bringing balance back to our webs so that we can continue with inaa' - life!

A wise grandmother who lived to be 104-ish reminded us of all that a prayer is. A wonderful way to start adding to this page once again. I have been absent from this page for a while as life has set a few obstacles in my path in the last few years. But now, they have passed and the beauty way has become ever so clear once again. Weaving out lives daily of actions and words that only bring balance to all creations is our ultimate focus. This concept of prayer is one way to do that. Ahee'hee!

How are we weaving our lives today? Are we remembering to check in with nature, our Mother the Earth? Are we taking in the spectacular changing of her robe as she prepares for winter? Are we taking a moment to see, hear, feel our relatives, the birds, squirrels, rabbits and plants? Have we looked up a tree while laying on the ground to see the splendor of the sky?

Weaving Life is spending precious time with a magnificent grandmother of the Earth all the way from Chile! Medicine woman, Luzclara Camus is visiting Minnesota with a strong and needed message to awake to the love of our Mother, the Earth, to reciprocate that love by listening to her and to join in her healing.

Mikaela Boston is headed to Dubai for a year to learn Arabic and enhance her life with the culture of Dubai. Her family gave her a send off with this dinner - Carolyn Hensel Boston