PLAINS CREE

While working with the Cree in Alberta at Blue Quills University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak

an elder said to me with a gentle smile...

"You are guests and visitors here and some of you have overstayed your welcome."

She laughed and told me that to understand this one needs to learn to speak with their heart and not their head.

This is an ongoing daily and moment to moment lesson that i have taken on since learning meditation and mindfulness practice in the early 90s while studying at the University of Victoria.

I was in my early 20s then.

I'm in my late 40s now.

I consider myself still in pre-school in understanding this great consciousness shift now upon us.

I am honored to be part of the school :).

I also consider it a great honor to be a guest and visitor here on the lands of the First Nations people.

My Grand Parents were refugees and immigrants from Latvia and Russia, and settlers from Tennessee and England.

I am in full support of reconciliation, the recognition of rightful territory, decolonization and my life here now is to work towards these ends. These days upon us are now a great merging of all the Religions and Faiths of the world.

The Religions of Spirituality and Science; the Creation, Organization and Destruction stories of all cultures state that:

in order to survive and thrive, we need to unite and work together symbiotically.

The more i work with the First Nations here the more i learn that the way my people look at work the First Nations look at ceremony.

As we continue to work this planet and ourselves into exhaustion, I wonder what the purpose is?

Is it simply that we have lost sight of what we truly need and mistaken in for what we think we want?

I greatly respect the ceremony i have been allowed to observe and take part in with these ancient peoples.

I realize i have lost this connection with my ancient roots in this North American experiment Europeans have embarked on.

I realize ceremony connects one to the land and the Creator of these lands.

It connects one to each other and all the beings.

It is a way of being healthy with all of these relationships and a way of healing if one is not healthy with all of these relationships.

I have learned a bit about the "Red Road" that leads to the Medicine Wheel.

I am told that inside this Wheel of Life are all the different colored peoples of the world.

I look forward to learning more about the "White Road" and how it can be traveled in peace and harmony with all of this Creation and all of its Relations.

I am thankful for this opportunity of Work and Ceremony with the First Nations;

to heal, learn and work together.
May all of our children understand the importance of unity and respect.

For all relations.