Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations.

"If you ask me what is the most important thing that I have learned about being a Haudenosaunee, it's the idea that we are connected to a community, but a community that transcends time.

We're connected to the first Indians who walked on this earth, the very first ones, however long ago that was. But we're also connected to those Indians who aren't even born yet, who are going to walk this earth. And our job in the middle is to bridge that gap. You take the inheritance from the past, you add to it, your ideas and your thinking, and you bundle it up and shoot it to the future. And there is a different kind of responsibility. That is not just about me, my pride and my ego, it's about all that other stuff. We inherit a duty, we inherit a responsibility. And that's pretty well drummed into our heads. Don't just come here expecting to benefit. You come here to work hard so that the future can enjoy that benefit."

Rick Hill Sr. (Tuscarora)
Chair, Haudenosaunee Stabding Committee on NAGPRA

Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now    -Matthew Olzmann

Most likely, you think we hated the elephant,
the golden toad, the thylacine and all variations
of whale harpooned or hacked into extinction.
It must seem like we sought to leave you nothing
but benzene, mercury, the stomachs
of seagulls rippled with jet fuel and plastic. 
You probably doubt that we were capable of joy,
but I assure you we were.
We still had the night sky back then,
and like our ancestors, we admired
its illuminated doodles
of scorpion outlines and upside-down ladles.
Absolutely, there were some forests left!
Absolutely, we still had some lakes!
I’m saying, it wasn’t all lead paint and sulfur dioxide.
There were bees back then, and they pollinated
a euphoria of flowers so we might
contemplate the great mysteries and finally ask,
“Hey guys, what’s transcendence?”   
And then all the bees were dead.
Copyright © 2017 by Matthew Olzmann.

The Seven Generation is based on Iroquois Confederacy goes back to earliest times.  It speaks to making decisions and making things sustainable for seven generations, to be aware of what we do today ripples out like a stone's ripple goes out and touches the grasses on the far side of the pool.  Everything we think, feel, touch, smell, taste, hear is significant.  We must live in such a way that our own choices ripple (like trickle down everything) and make things better for each ripple that goes out from us.  This is sobering thought.

We are aware of genetics and inherited traits so it is that everything effects tomorrow and tomorrow's tomorrow.  We are, every moment, affecting the ether.  We are clones to our parents and their parents before us;  as well, who we are, how we live, eat, think, will radiate out from generation to generation.   What do we do to sustain the good things in our lives and in our relationship with Mother Nature and Creator?  It is a sobering concern.

What can we do to pass the best of ourselves on to those yet to come?  What is our legacy?  What have we taught our children and grandchildren that will sustain generations to come?  It is a sobering thought, indeed.  How can we change the things we need to change?  We have imperfections.  What do we do to change those imperfections so that we do not pass the negative things on?  No one but self is living out the choices we make except those to come.  

We are guided to redirect our lives so that we do not let Ego stop us from being the best of ourselves.  It is too easy to say what we do not want to pass on.  What is the best of you to pass on?  

We know that it is not simply us that creates problems for Mother Earth.  Big conglomerates are the poison-ers of Mother Earth, the gutting and drawing of her.  One cannot change that.  But, at a personal level, what can we do to make Mother Earth more safe?  I am very bee-conscius, but one of our hives has neurological problems.  The bees of that one hive are shaking and shaky.  I have planted the kinds of flowers and plants to help them.  The Bee Man is a gentle caretaker.  Yet, someone out there has put something in the flowers they get their nectar from.  We are doing our best.  Life is like that.  We can do our best but someone, somewhere, is canceling out what we do.  Do we stop doing?  No!  We find ways to help the bees.  Perhaps the only impact we will really have is that we have five other hives doing splendidly.  

I, absolutely, know how genetics trickle down.  My birth family found me in 2006 and there are incredible ways we are alike in the most obscure of things.  We most all prefer salt over sweet (popcorn addicts).  We most all like to drink pickle juice.  Mother die with a jar of pickles on her bedside stand.   We most all need background sound to sleep.  And those are just some of the myriad of ways we are similar in physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual ways.  The way blood draws blood is amazing for those of us who grew up away from any of them.  I have a physical response when first meeting each of my siblings, but one, and that came later when we spent more time together.  It was like my heart surged towards them.  One brother, I had not met, yet, decided to surprise me at the airport.  I reached down to pick up my luggage and turned and about twenty feet away was a man who made my heart surge towards him.  I cried, "I would know you anywhere!"  It still amazes me.  My soul knew each one.  There is no feeling like it.  So, I know the connections although I never knew them.  There are things passed on that we have no clue of.

Knowing this, I am sure to grab my grandchildren and hold them to my heart.  One granddaughter, who I had not seen for many years, got married and I went to her to give her a huge hug.  As we embraced, she held on tighter and said, "Oh, you smell like Grandma!"  She actually remembered my cologne I have worn for decades. What had I passed on that I had no clue of?  What do we pass on, that we know of, through the senses?

We need to guard what we pass on in any way.  How would be remembered long after we go?  What, of us, will our grandchildren and their grandchildren carry on?
Let us be remembering that every thought, every action, every decision changes our heritage for generations.  Let us be awake in this.

©Carol Desjarlais 6.13.19