“Only
after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last fish has
been caught, only after the last river has been poisoned, only then will
you realize that money cannot be eaten.” - Cree Proverb
Lately
there have been plenty of childhood memories surfacing for me. The
other night I watched a show about a man who is travelling the globe to
take part in the lifestyles, ceremonies and rituals of indigenous
cultures. He is doing so in the hopes of learning their ancient ways
and telling their stories before they die out for good. Brilliant, I
thought - absolutely brilliant. This brought me to recall the time I
was preparing to move to Ireland, and over a cup of fresh organic coffee
I said to a friend that it was part of my plan to attempt to learn some
Irish Gaelic; this was just something I always knew in my heart and my
soul that I would do. “Well“, he said, “Now why would you do that?
There’s a dying language.” A bit surprised, as to me it was obvious …
“Well that’s precisely why“, I replied.
Reflecting upon this I
remembered the ‘tests’ I would put myself through as I was growing up.
Even though we never had much in the first place, I was always getting
rid of things. I refused to accept or play with dolls, opting instead
for one well loved stuffed bear. Along with that, my music collection,
clothes and a bed, my room was filled to what I was content with.
I was
quite happy also with a tall round Tupperware container filled with
clothespins, and I would spend lots of time clipping the pins around the
upper edge of this container. By the end I was very happy with the
completed ‘fan’ look. As the years progressed for me, it became a game
of “What can I do without? How minimally can I live?” I could never
quite understand why I did this, why I had such a repulsion to most
things I felt were frivolous or unnecessarily technological. I later
realized that subconsciously, I wanted to be prepared to live out my
life comfortably even if all things as we knew them were taken away.
There was a sort of deep seated thought pattern that said “This, as it
is, won’t last … be ready… “
I knew this idea could also be a bit
extreme. Until I lived with a girl who really WAS extreme. And I
realized I wasn’t alone in my quest for the minimal. She would keep the
heating down in the house to such an extent that the pipes would freeze
while it was colder than forty below outside, and you could see your
breath inside. We would wear layer upon layer inside of the house, with
hats and scarves, and I would have to sleep in fleece outerwear just to
sleep comfortably.
She later admitted to me that she was testing
herself, to see how cold she could stand it. I would be going to teach
classes, already so frozen by the time I got there, that I still
wouldn’t feel warm by the end of class. So I thought, there needs to be
a balance. I realized, there is no need to be harsh to myself any
longer in order to understand how to “live without”. And this balance
comes down to that which I learned in so many of my energy work and
spiritual healing classes - absolutely everything is about the give and
take.
This is a concept forgotten by many for so long, but one
which I believe is re-awakening. If you take something, give something
back. And as has been the way with indigenous communities, and as we
all inherently know and remember somewhere within our psyches, this
doesn’t need to be a material exchange. There are subtle exchanges as
well, exchanges of thought and sentiment, exchanges of good deeds,
exchanges of energy.
If someone wishes you well, it is a natural
response to wish them well in return. Relationships are wonderful
practice rooms for healthy exchange. It takes all one can muster not to
respond in kind to a negative word or action. On another level, the
earth is giving to us continually, sustaining us and nurturing us. We
drink of her blood (water), walk on her body (soil), are kept warm by
her vital energy (fire) and are supported by her essence (air). It is
the indigenous cultures and those practising indigenous ways that have
kept the exchange and the gratitude alive.
Giving thanks every
single day is empowering. Being aware of one’s surroundings is
empowering. We need to come back to our natural and innate connection
to our elements, animals, and negative space; ie, that which we cannot
“see” with our eyes alone. Increase our collective awareness. The ways
of greed, anger, selfishness, and violence are not innate to the human
condition. It took a long time for these programs to be bred into the
human vein, and we are now at a time in our planet’s cycle where these
programs are being triggered, challenged, and preparing to be
disseminated. As with any cleansing of the old, it is initially a
painful process but will be so rewarded in the end. Many cultures
believe that it is in fact the heart which is the mind. And most
shamanic teachings tell us that it is with the heart that we “see”.
I
am now reminded of a wonderful teacher of mine. We met at a time of
great transition in my life, and I don’t believe in coincidences. He
was a Native elder, true to form, living in the forest straight off of
the land and performing healing work with medicinal herbs and plants.
When we first met he triggered me greatly, as I knew what he had come
across my path to do. So naturally, I closed off to him, out of fear
and my mind telling me “I’m not prepared”. But we’re never really
prepared, are we? Knowing what was going on with me, he looked me
straight in the eye and said “I AM a true shaman”.
I blinked, my
resolve struck for a moment. Then my cheeky aspect of self replied,
“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you. I don’t have any tobacco”. He
blinked. Then he chuckled. I then broke down and began to divulge to
him what I hadn’t told anyone in many, many years … the dreams I’d had,
the visions I’d been having, some about the past, some seeming to be
future, but all with a common thread and with the idea that “time” is
simultaneous.
He calmed me down and gave me basic instructions on what
to do next. I became his student for a time, and one thing he showed me
involved being able to “see” a blood clot within the chest of a friend
of mine. He then proceeded to draw the clot out and to my amazement, a
dark red spot appeared on the back of his hand as he worked. It grew in
size until he had finished.
Appalled, and in the spirit of
give-and-take, I asked him, “What on earth will you do with that now?
You can’t keep it!” With a smirk of patience, he replied, “I will take
it home and give it to a tree”. Again creaked my cheekiness, “But how
do you know the tree wants it?”. Chuckles, chuckles, and more chuckles …
but no reply. Fair enough, I thought. I clearly have much more to
learn! Much time has passed since then, and I am so grateful. The
balance of give and take, an easy concept, but a not so easy practice.
We are getting there. All of us.
“They will start as fires that
burn within us, and we will burn up with desires and conflict if we do
not remember the original teachings, and return to the peaceful way of
life.”
