Healing Generations

It was lovely painting her face today....she simply flowed gently....Her Spirit is gentle, yet strong....As I painted her, I learned many things...I felt her fear for her future, the future of her family and all of the changes to come...would they be able to survive those changes? I also came to understand why I am painting these ancient faces....they are going through what many are going through today in other parts of the world...another culture comes in and imposes itself upon another. She reminded me about holding onto one's values, but allowing spirituality to change with the changing environement so we can survive and live a good life. She let me know that was the scarey part....allowing the change to happen, because you never know where it can lead to. She reminded me if we we staunchly hold onto the past, we get stuck, we get mired in the mud, and we lose touch with who we are.

So many people come to me wanting to learn Native American ceremonies, but I refuse to teach them. I ask, "Why, why do you wish to learn these?" John Trudell always says how we are all indigenous, it's just that some of us lost touch with that part of ourselves a very long time ago. We don't need to learn another culture's ceremony to celebrate life. How could we ever understand the depth and beauty of their ceremony without living that life completely? What I tell people is it is time to reconnect with our Ancestor's ceremony and to bring it into our modern day life. We need to allow it to change and evolve with the world today, so it can respond to today's challenges...so our ceremony can truly embody what we wish to heal and to create....We need to embrace who we are, and allow our inner divinity to express itself passionately....so today, she helped remind me of all of this.