beginnings and endings...Teachings of a wise woman

Teachings of a wise woman... from another wise woman.

Love reading these stories as I pass them on it is

because "ejh" makes a person think about the truth,

providing a lesson that worth reading.

May your holidays be beautiful and filled with peace and love.

Trust in spirit! Sidonia Night Sky~


Balanced Lifestyles, Teachings for Knowledge Seekers
It was just days before Christmas, and New Year day was just around the corner
when the Elder was passed protocol to provide teachings on endings and beginnings.

As the circle began she passed the smudge bowl and offering a prayer, and then she settled into her chair and made herself comfortable.

Next to her was a small table, which held a steaming cup of hot tea and an Eagle feather.

On her chair was a beautiful blanket with a brightly coloured Navajo design on it.

She said, ‘first my children, I want to begin by acknowledging the traditional people
of the land base we are gathered upon.

We begin this way because we honour the Ancestors that took care of their traditional territory,
and send forth words of gratitude for those who continue to take care of it.

As Stewarts of Mother Earth, it is our Sacred Responsibility to take care of Mother Earth
in the best way we can, therefore; we must care for her as we would our most cherished relatives.

The other reason is that the good people of this land, allow us to conduct healing work
here in their territory.

For their kindness and generosity, I most grateful.

Next, I want to acknowledge the blessed hands that take care of us older people,
it beautiful to know someone cares.

The blanket that someone placed on my chair is such a kind gesture,
which demonstrates the pure intention of love.

To me; both the blanket and tea say, ‘welcome Kokum; we are happy that you are here’.

So, I want to say to each and every one of you that I am happy you are here, as well.

Oh my beautiful children, I want to share so much with you.

I feel incredibly blessed that you spend time with me during your busy holiday season.

I feel honoured that you gathered here to listen to me about beginnings and endings.

There are all kinds of beginnings and all types of endings; for example,
I am getting up there in age and so the youth of my body has definitely come to an end.

However, inside; well, let me tell you that is a different story; sometimes, I feel like a little child.

Like the other day, one of my great-grandchildren came to me and said,
‘Kokum, come play video games.’

Well, I thought to myself, I am interested in what the kids play these days,
and the only way is to experience it.

So, I sat down and my great-grandchild says, ‘Kokum, all you have to do is hold onto this controller
and push the buttons, the point of the game is that you need to eat all the buttons and climb
to higher levels.’

I thought to myself, that can’t too hard.

Well, I tell you; that 5 year old, beat the heck out of me.’

The Elder laughed; and those in the circle, laughed right along with her.

She took a drink of her tea, and then continued, ‘that experience not only humbled me,
but made me feel younger than a 5 year old; and so, in many ways I was right back
at the beginning of my learning.

And, then there are other times when I feel like a teenager.

My youngest daughter has teenage girls and sometimes they braid my hair
and they talk to me about their problems.

In some ways, not much has changed, some of their problems I remember experiencing
when I was their age. What I mean is that I also curious about a lot of things when I was their age.

I also cared a great deal about the way I looked and always wanted to look my best.

I can also relate to my daughter who is a manager.

When she talks about the balance of working and running a household.

Mind you, at the beginning of motherhood, the kind of work I did was things like cleaning
or cooking jobs in the local hotel, but I know what it is like to get home after the end of a long hard day
at work and then have to feed children.

The Elder paused, and took another drink of her tea.

As she swallowed her tea, she said, ‘oh, I love this tea; it has the taste of peppermint.’

She appeared to be in deep thought, as she reached over and picked up the Eagle feather next to her.

She held the Eagle feather in her hand and with her other hand began to run her thumb and forefinger beginning at the quill and moving up and down the spine, and continued speaking,
‘you know, there are days, where it feels like I go through an entire life cycle from childhood
right up to my age today, what people might call the ‘Elder stage.’

The only times I feel like I am in the Elder stage is when I pass a mirror, or when my body
refuses to do things that seemed easy as punch before, like; lift things.

Truth is, there are times that I am actually surprised that I am actually the age that I am today.

Really, when you think about it, our spirits are ageless; after all, we are spiritual beings experiencing a physical journey. However, in our physical journey, the reality is that we do age.

When I was a young woman, just returned from residential school, I married a boy from the same reserve from me, only he had attended a different residential school; and like me, he experience hard times there.

It took us a long time to talk about what happened to us, but after many rocky years of marriage,
we eventually talked about it.

When I examine my life, I believe it is all represented in this feather I hold in my hands,
it seems damaged in some parts, but the reality is that when you look at the entire feather, it is whole.

You see here where the quill begins, I see this us coming through the doorway from the other side
- the spirit world.

Some people believe we chose how we live our physical journey when we enter the world.

I don’t know if this true, but honestly; I can tell you that I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.’

The Elder held the Eagle Feather up and said, ‘let’s examine the teachings of an Eagle Feather,
you see here at the plume, which begins here at the base of the quill,
it represents the purity that we had as children.

When I see babies, I think how innocent they are; full of gentleness and softness,
just like we were when we were babies.

And, then as you move up the feather, each of the little strands or barbs;
represents a different experience in our lives.

In the beginning, the feather is nice and full and as we near to the end, it isn’t.

That doesn’t mean that our experiences get shorter as we get older,
it just means that we have gained life experiences
and we don’t have to take such a long time to come to the same understanding
as we did when we were younger.

I guess as we age, we just don’t view things as so dramatic
or we come to terms with our life choices or what happened in our life.

And, then my dear one, we come to the end of our physical journey,
like we see at the tip of the feather.

But the journey doesn’t end; this is when we go into the unknown, the place of beauty.

You know my dear ones; recently, I have talked with a person and he told me
how he could not shut off his thoughts at night and they kept him awake.

As I listened to him, I realized how he wasted many hours of his life on regrets.

I recognized this because I too did this at one time in my life.

Today, I know this is one area that that people needs to end;
it is a horrible waste of life when we focus on regret.

I suggested that he allow himself, 30 minutes of time on his worries, every night.

He can rerun his day for up to 30 minutes and then change his thinking to focus on his blessings.

I had him agree to set his alarm for 30 minutes for that very night.

He asked me what to do if he begins thinking about regrets again after the 20-30 minute allotted time,
I said, ‘re-set the timer.’

This is what we need to do, my dear ones, life is too short; we need end harmful patterns
that does not serve us.

I know the old saying ‘life is too short’ seems overused, but it is far too true,
we are only given this specific journey, only once; and, it goes by as quickly.

Our life journey is as short as the time it takes the smoke from the smudge bowl to rise upward.

We need to focus on celebration of life rather than regret of it.

We are extraordinary beings, which means we were not mean to experience an ordinary journey.

When I thought about what I wanted to share with you today about beginnings and endings,
I thought; what I really want to do is to ask you 3 questions.

And, my dear relatives; I humbly request that you to give this some thought,
don’t rush the answers because the answers are important to you; well, if you let them be.

My dear loved ones, the questions I ask you are:

‘what stops you from fully celebrating and living your life to the fullest?’

‘What worry, regret or drama is worth trading the precious moments of your life for?’

And, my last question is: ‘what will you celebrate about the life you led when you get to the Elder stage?’

My relatives, I asked you the 3 questions from a place of love.

I truly pray that you consider my questions as you head into a New Year,
a time of new beginnings and I pray with all my heart that you choose to celebrate
your life and let go of regret.

No matter what happened in your life, remember like the Eagle Feather,
there may be some areas that feel damaged and nothing can change that;
however, with healing, you will see the bigger picture.

Without all your life experiences, you would not be the person you are today;
and when you begin to celebrate your life, you will begin to celebrate you.

When you celebrate you, you will love you and it is then that you will understand that all your life experiences bought you to a place of love of self.

As you journey forward, regardless if you are the beginning of your journey
or feel like you are near the end of some chapters of your life;
my dearest ones, as you journey forward,
please do so with the knowledge that you are loved by Good Grandmothers,
Good Grandfathers by the Four Sacred Directions
and Creator of All Good Things.

My dear children, thank you for listening to me,


I wish you beautiful abundance as you journey forward.’

All my Relations,
Emily Jane Henry, (ejh)
Kihci Têpakohp Iskotêw Iskwêw

along with a teaching from me...

"ABSOLUTELY NO MATTER HOW 'BUSY' A PERSONS LiFE is,
iF THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT YOU,
"iF THEY ARE REALLY iNTO YOU,
iF THEY ARE REALLY CARiNG,
iF THEY ARE REALLY CONSiDERATE,
iF THEY ARE REALLY KiND &
iF THEY ARE REALLY THOUGHTFUL,
THEY WiLL ALWAYS PUT FORTH THE EFFORT
TO MAKE YOU A PRiORiTY
TO eXchange WiTH YOU
TO FiND TiME FOR YOU
TO share special things with you
TO spend special time with you
and, if they do NOT
THEN ONE WOULD BE WiSE
TO WiSE UP
iF you are NOT a priority
in their life
BUT merely an option
slotted into their life
MAYBE, JUST MAYBE
YOU ARE TOO GOOD
TO GO ON eXisting in their life
BE WHO YOU ARE...
AND, DO THAT ELOQUENTLY !!!
SUSAN LYNNE SCHWENGER