December 2009

This Winter, the time when we rest before the next birthing cycle, we have an opportunity to explore the story of our personal journeys over the last year.

As we move into the 6th night of the Mayan Calendar, we are reminded to focus particularly on the positive shifts that have emerged in our personal consciousness. We've been facing fears and moving through them. All-of-us.

Every fear we faced, no matter how small, made us less dense and sluggish; we became a little lighter, a little brighter. This winter each of us can take the time to see how this last year has  changed us, and what is different in us as a result.

Next year, known also as the Gallactic 6^th night in the Mayan calendar, we would do well to  nurture the new ‘light’ that we have birthed. This light will guide our new stories, which each of us is creating with every thought, every word, every new belief.

Collectively our individual stories, each a twinkling star, are part of a new creation story.

I just spent a remarkable few days at a native elders’ conference that focused on First Nations, Inuit and Metis sharing their creation stories, and happily, for us, they shared their personal stories as well. It was a poignant and beautiful experience. Our hearts were profoundly opened from the first circle. The storytellers, highly accomplished in the contemporary world, had sought out the ancient traditional knowledge of their ancestors. These articulate, educated. speakers told stories that illustrated the wisdom of their ancestors.

Their stories taught which foods to eat in the winter; how to understand a bear or caribou; how to cleanse in the spring and heal the liver; and which herbs cured TB. We were told how to build a pipe or make a medicine bundle; how to put on your ‘good mind’ first (slow your breathing and thoughts and connect to the earth) put down tobacco and say a prayer of intention before you head out to harvest. The old ones remember stories that took four full weeks to tell.

Tom Porter, (Sakokwenionkwas), Chief spiritual leader of the Mohawk community, shared a story about a remarkable chief with whom he had been privileged to work. When there was thunder, the chief would take them outside, light his pipe and send his words of thanks, riding the tobacco smoke, up to the sky. He thanked the thunder beings, for the rain they were bringing to the rivers, to the raspberries and corn, and for clearing the air and making it fresh again. Tom Porter said that people like that, who spoke to nature, could always make magical things happen, because they knew the world was alive. Wise words.

Throughout the gathering the native elders were reminding us, with both their personal and learned stories, that we are here to listen to, and nurture the earth. Likewise, the earth is nurturing us. To be successful is not to have a million dollars, but to know intimately our deep relationship with the earth; to have a loving community; a kind and generous heart. It made me wonder: how might we create that world; what would that world look like; how would we be with each other in that world; what would we value most; how would we make decisions; what would we know we don’t know now?

This winter is the time to dream our future, to visualize what we would consider a perfect world. Dream it well, see it clearly, plant it in the ethers, in the mud, in the sparkling snow. As we clearly see ourselves in that world, the shifts, we’ve initiated recently, will guide us on our journey.

If anything makes you feel dense, tired, defeated, frightened or despondent, steer away; that is the old world. For example, much as I love special effects, I am boycotting films like ‘2012’ that are Hollywood fear-mongering. It is important we replace the fear that is out in the world with a bright, love-filled, positive future for us all.

This winter we are at the doorway of a new world. Take this opportunity to remember your journey, remember the gifts you have received and the gifts you carry within. The elders say each of us is a Sacred Pipe, each of us is from the stars.