Curious about the above picture - join us for our first deep dive on 4/20 and find out what the heck this is.
Boozhoo - For those of you who were wanting to take the Firemaking Class you are in luck. We had to cancel due to the weather and health issues but we will be rescheduling this weekend class for later in the year. We will keep you posted.
For the month of April we have our first Deep Dive class coming up and the apprenticeship starts. The apprenticeship is full but there is still space in the Deep Dive. We have had so much fun pulling our show, tell, smell and taste items together. I will post the class flyer below.
So, now that housekeeping is taking care, what do I mean by all my relations? I have been thinking about family a lot lately and who I include in my concept of family. As an adoptee there are a few blood relations, some legal relations and my family of choice members. They are all human and I love them but I realized that the place that I go to when I am upset is the woods and there is my spiritual family. I know I have some issues with attachment disorder and bonding that I have been working on but my attachment to the land and water has always been strong. When I am upset and needing consolation I usually head for the woods. I never feel alone there. I always feel soothed. I always feel like I belong.
In the Ojibwe language the gramatical gender is not male/female, it is animate/inanimate. Trees, plants, animals, stones, etc are animate and cognizant. They are all my relations. We may not speak the same language but we can communicate. Evolutionarily the land forms came first; followed by the plant kingdom then followed by the animal kingdom of which we are relative newcomers. Hence the expressions Grandmother Cedar, Grandfather Stone, Older Brother Bear and so on. All of these lifeforms have been around way longer than we have and have so many lessons to teach us about how to live in harmony. It behooves us to make connection.
That is the goal of our teachings. We want to help introduce you to the real teachers, the real knowledge holders. We are just facilitators. Life lived in relationship is so rich and beautiful. I have loved this spring watching all my friends begin to bud, flower and leaf. To live within the web is to always be excited about what is happening now and what is coming up soon. It is the greatest show on earth. You can enjoy it from the seat of your car or you can come on out to the woods and have a backstage pass to really get to know the performers.
Hope to see you.
Mii’iw