Tag: Gratitude

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Divine I Am

Grateful for Gratitude

Gratitude comes from the root word for Pleasing and Thankful.

I am so grateful for the ability to have gratitude in every moment. To find things about every experience that are pleasing and that I can be thankful for.

Its so important to always find things to be grateful for. Living a life of gratitude is the way to true happiness.

Grateful for the little things

There are so many things to be grateful for, but most recently I have to say I am grateful for the ability to share my story with the world. Being able to travel to South Africa and work with the people there has really been such a blessing.

Being apart of the TAI 5th Annual Artizen Conference on Art for Social Transformation has created new whole new perspective to my reality. It has shown me new ways to interact, and to help others to create and share their stories.

Simply spending time in another country has given me deep gratitude for all of the things I have been blessed with in America. Even though my ancestors have been through trauma and are still healing… I have a deeper appreciation for all aspects of the journey and for where I am blessed to be today.

Since being home I’ve found myself grateful to be able to simply walk outside my house and see the street from my yard. To not have gates and barbed wire fences all over my community. To be able to have consistent electricity and water, as South Africa participates in “load sharing”. Load sharing is when certain areas have their electricity and water shut off for hours, sometimes days at a time. A lot of people in America take for granted things like this.

Grateful for Partnerships

Grateful

The trip to South Africa has opened up many doors to new partnerships! I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with Disele May Foundation to help woman who are survivors of gender based violence.

I am also excited about partnerships with a few others where I will help translate a book of poems from Tanzania to English, have my students in Maryland work with schools in South Africa, and work with other artists to share Indigenous knowledge through creativity.

I am also grateful for the relationships that were created while on the trip. Being able to problem solve, build and teach with so many amazing individuals really develops a strong bond.

To the ladies on my team…. Jennifer, Linda, Raisa, and Shanna… I am so grateful for your being. I really feel we have created a strong bond that will will only grow as we continue our work together. Great things to come for sure! I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me, about ribbon skirts, the medicine wheel, and performance art! I am better because I know you and have spent time with you.

Thank you TAI

Thank you Teaching Artist Institute… for all the hard work you put into facilitating this opportunity. Thank you for being steady, centered, grounded and flexible. For being a beautiful example of how to handle things when they don’t go as planned. Your ability to remain focused on the mission, in light of whatever came your way, is an example of authentic and true leadership.

Migwetch to all who supported the trip

Migwetch is Anishinaabe for “I am grateful for you.”

The trip would not have happened without the support and love from my community, friends and family. Thank you all for your continuous generosity! Together we can do amazing things…we can change the world.

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Stewardship!

Stewardship is the job of taking care of something.

When we are stewards of the land, we are taking care of what’s been given to us.

We are showing our gratitude for all of the gifts we’ve received.

The earth provides so much life energy.

Show respect and reverence through tending the land.

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Everyday is a good day…

Especially…

When you notice how far left and right you can turn your healing wrist.

When you finally can zip your pants half way up with your healing wrist.

When you can carry your cup of coffee with your healing wrist.

When you have loved ones willing to help when in need.

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Find your center

Today I released a lot… I let go of old memories, and stories…I started rewriting my mental story.

Today I mourned and grieved… for situations I wish I had, and relationships I have never experienced.

Today was a heavy day. Energetically speaking. I felt it heavy in my chest, which made it hard to focus on any task. As soon as I arrived home I got a migraine.  I had already decided that I was going to do yoga this evening so I chose Yoga for Migraines.  It was exactly what I needed… and as I lay in shivasana massaging the base of my neck, an explosion tears occurred… emotions and memories… all based around fear.

As I continued to rub my neck, I was experiencing the memories emotionally and physically again…as if I was there in that moment.  Realizing that I was releasing old patterns.  The fear I felt in each memory told me I have been programmed to be scared. Scared of being hurt… physically, mentally and emotionally. Fear of being hurt… and causing someone else to react in a manner that would hurt me.

Being the reason for my own pain.

It was a lot…. I cried and replayed the memory and felt the experience and cried more… the crying was almost as automatic as my breath…it was as if my body was physically releasing the energy and old patterns.

After a few breaths in each memory, the fear subsided and I was no longer scared of that outcome because I knew that in this moment I Am that I Am.

Releasing the fear lead me to mourning the absence of an experience that the majority of people have in their lifetime… the opportunity to meet my mother’s parents, and to grow up with active grandparents. Which makes me wonder… is there a statistic on the number of people who grow up without one or both sets of grandparents?

To me this is important because it has to do with the knowledge of self, so to speak. Our energy is made up of our ancestors’ choices and experiences, and our children’s children will be made up of our choices and experiences. Knowing oneself is vital to growth and evolution. So being able to spend time with your grandparents and learn from them more about who you are, is very important.

So I mourned my mother’s parents. I mourned the absence of an authentic relationship with my fathers parents. I grieved for not being able to speak to them, and ask them questions about their lives and their parents lives. I grieved for never being able to hug them and feel their presence in the physical realm. I allowed myself to feel what I was feeling.

And then I felt their presence…. in the space my breath had created… and for the first time I realized what this season was truly about. What our ancestors acknowledged and celebrated…. when the energy of the world is aligned and the veil is thin… this is when we can communicate with our ancestors and this is when we can learn from them.

Of course this is the perfect timing for releasing. Aside from the fact that there are major astrological events happening… It is almost all hallows eve, Samhain, and Dia de la Muertos.  This is the perfect time for us to get in touch with who we are through our painful memories… to release the fears surrounding those experiences and fill ourselves with love and gratitude.

Who you are encompasses all of your relatives.

To connect with our ancestors and dig deeper into who we are, we can meditatively let go and release what we “know” of our ancestors experiences through mourning, grieving and celebrating the life experiences that lead them to be who they were… filling those memories in with golden light of peace, love, and gratitude.  Then celebrate them throughout the week by remembering their light… perhaps light candles for them.

Do what you feel in your heart you should do…as you have all the answers within.

“My love is just a reminder”~Trevor Hall

Migwetch and Gi’zaagi’in <3

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Road Trip Recap… Part deuce

It still feels like yesterday… driving to North Dakota with my co-pilot Holly. If you missed my first post about our trip you can check it out here … Road Trip Recap Part 1

So I wrote a little about what it was like being there but not in depth.

On Thursday, November 23th, 2017 … Holly and I woke up early after an energetic evening of communing with our elder about the lineage of the Ojibwe people, my people. We woke up, made our coffee and headed down rte 3 towards Cannon Ball North Dakota.

Energies were all over that day, we felt excited, nervous, hopeful… on a mission.

Energies were showing themselves through syncs this entire trip, however day felt different. We were heading to the energy center of a ripple that will affect what is drawn to us next. Like a drop of water into an empty basin…each person there, each person aware is another drop in the same spot… filling up the basin and creating momentum through a powerful ripple.

We stopped at the geographical center point of North America, in Rugby North Dakota. Some people say  its not exact, to me that’s not the point… because points are all subjective anyway. The obelisk and flags are interesting, as is the bell tower sculpture the next building over. I’m always curious of the details of monuments.

Continuing our travels south, we learn more about each of our history…Holly’s Quaker lineage and my Ojibwe linage… we learn about the doctrine of discovery. This was one of the most eye opening things to learn that I was never taught growing up. The fact that this is not taught as apart of our history to know, is very telling.

Driving while listening to this was life changing. Nature talking to us…showing us ourselves. Connecting to the harmony of the earth while being uprooted from our previous perceptions of our reality. We slow drove down this road and saw an abandoned house surrounded by these energetic trees. So we stopped, and got out to explore. The geese circled above our heads as we walked around. The house was a beautiful reminder of how time passes and material things fade, but mother earth… she remains through it all.

After our magickal stop, we pushed on 2 more hours to Sacred Stone Camp which is the first encampment created by the Standing Rock Sioux in protection of the water and mother earth.

When we finally arrived at Sacred Stone camp it was as if I had been here before. I felt at home, peaceful and in loving arms. I experienced the magnitude that gratitude has on the human spirit. Everyone working together for one cause, our mother Earth… love… brotherhood. We dropped off our donations to the medic clinic, and they were received in pure love and gratitude.

I stopped into the new school tent, and met a beautiful woman who told me all about how they just moved the school into these car ports and were reinforcing them and insulating them with hay and blankets so that the students could learn in a space that was warm and comfortable for them.

I noticed the students had a lot of books, and there were many visuals on the walls. The students create a mural on canvas, posters to share new knowledge and artwork to express themselves. Seeing what I do everyday, being done in a place with less resources and support, really experiencing it first hand was powerful.

Thanksgiving is a day known in our history for the relationship between the light skinned settlers and the native people of the Americas. Historically, the story goes there was peace with all who sat and ate together. People all over celebrate this day of thanks… this day of giving. Instead of focusing on the irony that the police ate their thanksgiving dinner on top of the Standing Rock Sioux tribes ancestors burial ground and ignored the peaceful pleas to respect their ancestors and move off the hill, I  remained in gratitude for all I have, knowing that even the toughest and smallest things deserve my love and appreciation.

Grateful to experience the love and brotherhood of thousands of people. Grateful for my friend Holly, for my auntie and giwaa, for my partner and kids, for my mother and father… for my coworkers, my friends and acquaintances, for my job, for the system that my job is apart of, for the world I live in … for better or worse… because there is no such thing as worse… there is only experiences and my perception of those experiences.

Gratitude is the key to realizing who we are… gratitude opens your mind… to be grateful for something starts a chain reaction of appreciation for life its self, ups and downs, for without one there would not be the other.

So after visiting Sacred Stone camp we decided to travel to the large front lines camp, Oceti Sakowin. Driving up to the camp was surreal… seeing all of the people setting up camp, to stand in solidarity for our earth, our water.

It was fantastic seeing how we come together and express ourselves through art… there were so many beautiful banners, and amazing installations showing unity through art!

After exploring the grounds, we found out there was a water action happening at Turtle Island, the burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux’s ancestors. This was the hill that the police set up their post to watch over the water protectors. So Holly and I walked to the front line with hundreds of other people of all different nations, to stand for peace, love and respect.

When we arrived it was ominous to see the police standing on top of the hill looking down on us. It was like right out of a George Orwell story to see drones flying over and around us. It was beautiful to hear hundreds of people chanting words of intention for peace and love… for the protection of our water, and our mother earth.

We participated in a Lakota water ceremony with hundreds of people from all over… praying to our grandmothers and blessing the water with cedar. Infusing love and blessings into the water and land, and each others hearts.

Talk about a fantastic day of thanks… experiencing the true meaning of thanksgiving… gratitude… appreciation on every level. Our drive back was reflective, and our experience brought out new insight on our perspectives and how we can be more grateful for all things and in all things we experience, and how we can show unconditional love.

Everyday we should reflect on what can we do to be more appreciative and compassionate in our lives …

Migwetch & Giizaagin

Raining in the dawn woman.

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Existence Most Popular

BEing open

Everyday is a new day to allow yourself to be…
open to receiving love
open to receiving light
open to life

Your presence
Your existence
Your awareness of self
Your desire to dig deeper
Into all aspects of that which makes you
Lights my path
Making my journey to self brighter
I experience freedom and space
When you’re authentically yourself
I can be authentically me
For this I am filled

With Gratitude.

<3
Migwetch & Gizaagiin
Raine Dawn