It often fails me, my sense. At least that is what I think at the time. There really is nothing in retrospect that I wish I KNEW in advance, if I knew it all, I wouldn't do anything at all. My own experiences good and bad have shaped me into what I have become,including my lack of forsight. We are not born with for knowledge, there are things that are inborn but even those things we have to develop. A baby knows to eat, but has to be shown how to eat. Sleep comes natural but we develop good sleeping habits. These past few weeks I keep asking myself over and over why is it that I repeat the same things. I know there are things that I need to learn, need to still develop. I am tired of trying so hard for so long, so long for so hard, to meet myself half-way. When do I meet myself all the way? Maybe I have not even met myself yet.

Thoughts of thawing mind part????

Oki and good evening. As I grace the keyboard with my gentle yet oh so clumsy stroke, I am reminded of the sacred and magical crow. Have you ever taken the time to really watch a crow, doing anything? There is so much intellegence behind those eyes of black but at times they seem almost clumsy and iept. This teaches us a lesson. We may at times feel like we are stumbling, even look as though we have no idea what we are doing, but true wisdom does not always take on the form of grace and beauty. Like the sacred wise crow there are times where movements are harsh and slow. We likewise should never misplace or put aside a message that may come in a form that is less than what we expect or, perhaps we trip into or over it. The Great Spirit works through all of creation. Lets always give thanks for all he imparts to us his children.

Look at that hair!

Oki and good evening to all the people not reading this blog! I hope this evening finds you in good spirits, warm inside and out. I was thinking this evening about a subject close to my heart, and my head, hair. My daughters hair is getting long as the minutes tick on. There it is this mass of silk like material flowing freely from her skull. Have you ever watched the wind blow through long hair? It takes on a life of its own, and quite literally our hair is alive. This is not to say that people who have short or no hair are not attractive and or can not feel the breeze. As a Native American, hair is more than just something that comes out of the folicles of the head, it is symbolic. I was scanning the web for native hairstyles and came upon some great stuff. I thought I would share a few tid bits! Be well and safe, may the wind always blow in ones general direction. Aho!
From Native languages.org
"The most common Native American men's hairstyles were flowing hairstyles, long braids, or shaved heads. But there were many different versions of each of these basic hairstyles. Hair held great symbolic importance for men in many Native American tribes, especially in Western tribes like the Sioux and Blackfoot. Men in these tribes only cut their hair to show grief or shame, and often wore the front part of their hair in special styles including pompadours (hair stiffened with grease or clay so that it stands up), forelocks (one long strand of hair hanging down between the eyes), or small braids or topknots arranged in various shapes. In Eastern tribes like the Lenape and Iroquois tribes, most warriors shaved their heads except for a scalplock (a single lock of hair on the crown of their head), tonsure (a fringe of hair around the head), or roach (a stiff crest of hair running down the middle of the head.) The roach hairstyle is often known as a Mohawk or Mohican hairstyle, after two tribes who frequently wore it. Native American men would often wear artificial roaches, too, which were made of brightly colored porcupine or deer hair. Men with shaved heads and men with long braids would both wear artificial roaches sometimes. Most Southwest Indian men originally wore their hair in a chongo style similar to the women's. (Chongo is a Pueblo word; the same hairstyle is also known as Tsiiyéél in Navajo and Hömsoma in Hopi.) Shoulder-length hair with a cloth bandana around it became a more popular style in the Southwest by the 1800's. Other Southwestern men twisted their hair into long hair rolls resembling modern dreadlocks, which they stiffened with clay and painted. On the Northwest Coast and northern California, men sometimes wore topknots on top of their heads. Northwest Coast men also wore mustaches and sometimes beards, while men in most other Native American tribes kept their faces shaved.
˜Do Native Americans still wear these hairstyles today?
Some of them. Braids and long flowing hair are still popular hairstyles, especially among women, but also for some men. Native Americans in some Plains and Western tribes continue to place great spiritual value on their hair, cutting it only when they are in mourning. Chongos are still worn by some Native American women in the southwest. Other special hairstyles like forelocks and squash blossoms are seen only at religious and cultural events. The roach ('Mohawk') hairstyle is almost never worn anymore, but artificial roaches are still worn at powwows all over the country."

Elder's Meditation Of the Day January 21

Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 21
"This is the time of awakening to the inner father and the inner mother. Without this we will receive no high initiation; instead we get initiated into darkness. That's because any investigation or revolution without God leads, not to freedom, but to more slavery."
--Willaru Huayta, QUECHAU NATION, PERU
Honor the Father and the Mother. Father stands for wisdom and Mother stands for feelings. Inside each of us is the Father and the Mother. If we do not honor both, we will not grow in balance. To honor both the Father and the Mother helps our masculine and feminine sides grow. The winter season is a good time to focus on this. This is our season of reflection. Honoring both sides allows us to see the Creator is both Father and Mother.

Great Spirit, Father Sky, Mother Earth, guide me today. Let me experience balance.

Elder's Meditation..January 20th Enjoy!

Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 20
"The most important thing now is to reveal the inner temple of the soul with right thinking and right activity."
--Willaru Huayta, QUECHUA NATION, PERU
The key to growing a strong tree is to have a good system of roots and to feed the roots with good medicine. If we put poison in the root system, it will affect the tree, and it will become obvious to the rest of the forest what is being fed to the roots. This is also true of the human being. We need to feed our roots with right thinking. If our thinking is right, it will become obvious to the rest of the people. We don't need to tell people about ourselves with our mouth because our actions always tell them.

Great Spirit, direct my thinking today. Feed my roots.

Thoughts of the Thawing Mind part ??????

There are days where I feel like I could just quit, quit everything, thinking, wanting, knowing, showing, gasping, wondering, loving. It is this time of year, the frozen tundra of our realities set, rarely moving anywhere until the thaw of the spring. Ever see the water in winter? It does not stop, even with a thick layer of ice over it. The water underneath flows strong reminding us that not matter what nature always keeps moving, at it's own pace, with it's own strength and grace.This day I am determined to be like the water. No matter what I will not stop even though there are many things that might become an obstacle! With the Great Spirits help and my brothers and sisters, my children and my guides I will be like the water, powerful and never ending.

Go in peace Aho!

Elder's Quotes of wisdom

"I was born upon the prairie where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures and where everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls."
Ten Bears,
Yamparika Comanche Chief
At the Medicine Lodge Creek Council at Kansas,
October 1867

"I do not want to settle down in the houses you would build for us. I love to roam over the wild prairie. There I am free and happy. When we sit down, we grow pale and die."
White Bear,
Kiowa Chief

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round....
The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest is circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours...
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves."

Black Elk,
Oglala Sioux Holy Man
1863-1950