Risky Business

 

 

 

**Done With Toni Burk

I have always been a risk-taker; someone who jumps into an ice-cold mountain stream without a thought to depth and temperature.  I would wait on the banks long after everyone have tiptoed into the stream and suddenly, as if on impulse or push, I dove in.  No tiptoeing or timid little steps to acclimatize, just a quick sudden jump.  I have been like that my whole life.  As I age, sometimes the risk-taking sees me in good stead, sometimes not, but I have come to redefine risk-taking as I age.  Risk-taking is sometimes NOT risking.

Every decision we make affects us in every quadrant of the Medicine Wheel of our life; physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.  Not only that, it affects the universe in that every move made sends out ripples into the ether; every thought we have changes the ethereal thoughts; every feeling we feel affects the heart of the world; every belief we have affects global belief in some way.  That is monumental!  It is a responsibility to do, think, feel and believe in better things, best things, good things t, loving things that ripple out into the ether.

I try hard to focus on these things, and fail miserably some times, but, sometimes… I am in a win-win situation and I cannot tell you how relieved…yes, relieved I feel when I do the best thing.  I try to be a truth=seeker and I do not mean a macro-truth, but a micro-truth – one that is my truth.   I am fully aware that even my very feelings/emotions affect the ether.  I am sure you have met someone who has you drowning in their sorrow.  I am sure we have all met those who simply send out bursts of positive energy.  We have met someone who emits calm.  My ‘bad hair day’ becomes everyone’s bad hair day.  It is there, in the ether, stirring, like a bad breeze, waiting for someone weak enough to cave.  We can defend ourselves, but for what reason?  Their truths are their truths and we have no need to defend ourselves when wronged, or misjudged, or being bullied, even.  We know our truths, God knows our truths, and it is of no one else’s business what my truth is.  Why stir up trouble when it is empowering to know your own truth when others might not have a clue?  The calm when there could have been an even bigger storm is to have risked letting others be wrong, or their ‘right’, without defense.

I risk to follow my heart, my soul, and I have to work hard at not following my Ego.  Ego is all about the wrong kinds of risks.  Soul is simply letting be what must be.  True risk-takers are those who hold high, the banner of authenticity and awareness.  Instead of jumping in the water, risking to stand on the shore, is good wisdom, I think, for me and others to follow.

©Carol Desjarlais 9.28.20

 

Gift From The Little People.

 

 

 

Last weekend, while rockhounding around Monte Lake, I happened upon this stone.  I quietly picked it up, knowing it was precious and bears something I should know.  While some may look at it and find it interesting, I knew what my Woodland Cree people would say about it.  I gathered it and brought it home and will let it rest for a bit before I do a personal ceremony to know the meanings.  Meanings?  Yes!  Any found stone with grooves and symbols in it is a gift from the Little People.  Little people?  Yes, and now I will share something that I was told when I found several inscribed stones way up North.

 

Kayas (a long time ago), there were many Little People, magical people, people who would tease you or, yes, sometimes teach you or warn you in their own ways of gift-giving.  They are very much like fairies, or hobbits, or tiny dwarves, or leprechauns, but were a real people and are a real people still.  They were/are a tribe living amongst us.  They are really a peaceful people who want to help us Big People by guiding us, by leaving gifts for us to find that will teach us, will warn us, will quietly and humbly accept our gifts in return.  You all saw the gift I left up where we camped.  It was a gift of gratitude for their guardianship of the area.

 

The Little People wear simple clothing of simple peacemakers that they are known to be.  They love to trade, so if something small goes missing, say, a ring, or a thimble or something small, very often they have borrowed it and will be leaving you something in trade. 

It is said that, many wars ago, many different peoples tried to kill off all The Little People because, really, they were like magic people and that was scary to The Others.  But, in the end of it all, there were still two of the Little People left;  young ones; a girl and a boy.  They spent all their growing up years in mourning over their Little People in deep dark caves and living off bark and leaves and things they could find when they came out only at dark. 

One winter was extremely cold and snow was over their heads, but they were freezing and starving so they put on their snowshoes ( backwards, of course, to fool anyone who tried to follow them) and they moved to where it was warmer and they could live through that long winter.  In the Spring, it was so beautiful, and they built a beautiful mound dwelling and yet, because they had learned to love their cave dwellings, they added a deep cave beneath their mound.  It provided security because they were so used to having to hid and they were not sure about any new peoples they might have around. 

They had many children and all the Little People were still afraid of any newcomers so lived quiet lives, only having anything to do with their own.  They heard and saw Other Peoples, but stayed well away from them because they were, of course, afraid, and the trickle-down fear stayed with them until this day.  They do not trust easily.  Of course, there were some skirmishes where Other People tried to find them, capture them, take their ‘pretties’ and use their magic for their own.  They still tell the stories of the cruelties and yet they do not seek revenge.  They are known to watch carefully for those who are good people, people who long, people who suffer, people who grieve, and they will give them gifts of healing, little trinkets, and little amulets ( the little stones, that suddenly appear, that have holes in them that show they were worn on a thong around their neck for protection). 

It is said that those first Little People that were left, mourned so heavily that Creator blew smoke down their mound dwelling and turned them into spirit beings.  Perhaps they are spirit beings yet.  But, know they are here and they will leave evidence for those who are worthy of knowing.  Sometimes, like I did, you will find some of their writings, a certain message, a carved blessing, on their stone tablets.  To find such is great responsibility because we are meant to keep them safe from any harm ever again. 

They bless us, silently in the background, and they are never seen unless they want to be seen.  I have never seen one, but have received their gifts many times.  My two youngest daughters have seen them, had them bless them by touching their foreheads and telling them a beautiful secret, when we lived way up North and the girls were still very young.  The girls knew nothing of these people before hand, but when they told their story of these two old ladies dressed in old fashioned native clothing, and what they did, it was known that they had met the sacred Little People grandmothers.  Their experience and full story is not a story any of us tell lightly. 

Whenever you find such a gift, you are to leave tobacco and somehow return a gift to them.  I have a sense that finding this stone is a gift in return for the gift I left up at Cherryville.  I can know no more; I can only do what I know to do and receive in kind.  I will wait for the transcribing of the message left to me to find and when it comes, I will know. 

©Carol Desjarlais 9/26/20