Rattling the Bones

Almost 25 years ago when I started teaching the Medicine Wheel I struggled with the language.  I found it difficult to lecture crowds of people who vowed that science was more credible then Indigenous beliefs.  Often I was criticized for being New Age because of the vocabulary.  It took me almost a decade of learning / healing – to be able to claim the language and convey the sacred knowledge / science that exists through it or behind it.  I understood this process as “ reasoning .” The Wheel shows us how important it is to choose a path and walk it.... Manifest it. In the beginning I often had monologues where all I did was defend the ancestral ways.  When one day, a Mohawk Medicine Man I met in Montreal said to me: “Don’t bother trying to convince anyone.  Work on being convinced your self.” In 1988 I was diagnosed with autonomic neuropathy.  The doctors didn’t seem to know much about the disease except that eventually it ...

During the weekend of May 11 th , we celebrated Mother’s Day.  In our home there are two perspectives to this celebration; which I feel is the reason why we can actually enjoy the day.  I personally think it’s a celebration tainted with romanticism and manipulated by capitalism.  The sentiment may be “nice”; but like many other Western celebrations it brings to the surface all kinds of issues nobody is really interested to work through.  When you focus on the “nice” you often give permission to people to ignore “the shadow / the wrong.” My children sincerely always treat me as if Mother’s Day is every day; but on the actual celebratory date they tend to reason out the meaning behind it all more so then usual and because of it – we always have a nice time.  Lately, I’ve been exploring the Moons.  There are 13 Moons on the Medicine Wheel and they refer to a cycle of development, transition and growth.  Basically the Moons help us explo...

My husband and I have bought a few homes in the last 20 years.  Like everyone else when searching for a home we always choose a city or community we feel we would most be comfortable in; we list house specifics; and when we find something we like we make sure to have the building inspected.  I don’t know too many people who will take the time to knock at neighbouring houses to see if the neighbours are actually friendly.  I’ve noticed through helping KM (real estate agent) that many individuals will move from their homes because of conflicts with neighbours.  It doesn’t matter how close or how far people live from their most immediate neighbours – feuds have existed over territory for millenniums.  Why is it so difficult to get along? I often think that many of the conflicts that we have with our neighbours, our spouses, our family members (parents, siblings etc…) and even our children are not about relationships with others; but abo...