Happy Holidays!

To everyone who has been kind enough to follow this blog, I wish you wonderful blessings during this holiday season.

There is a new year right around the corner!
2010 - oh my goodness!!

How I Am Feeling Today

This morning (December 18, 2009) as I looked outside, I saw a red-tailed hawk circling, circling, circling in the falling snow.

I went inside, got some tobacco to offer, and realized she was reminding me of a poem I had written several years ago:

Underneath The Hawk’s Scream

I stood underneath the hawk's scream
long enough to know I didn't understand
long enough to know I needed to go deeper

long enough to know that the crows crowding her,
distressing her, tearing at her with their indifference
were there for a reason as were the blue jays quietly listening.

How badly did she want her nest in that tree?
What would she endure to make sure her cries were respected?
Her creations were born?

I stood underneath the hawk's scream long enough to realize
she was not screaming from frustration
she was screaming to be heard

long enough to know she was teaching me how to persevere.
"Carry on!” she shrieked at me.
"You have a right. It came with birth."

(©2005 from Confessions of a Madwoman)


These days, I get so caught up in what I am working on, I forget what has been given to me: all the gifts of writings, teachings, lessons, stories, etc., that I have shared with others. Today, the hawk reminded me of what I have been given, and in essence, reminded me to share these strengths with myself.

Simple Wisdom or Wise Simplicity?

I have finally accepted the true meaning of detachment.

I know now that detachment and letting go are not the same.

Letting go is easily said and attempted.

Detachment is something that has to happen by changing one's beliefs.

It took a total psyche change for me. A dying of a belief that I had tried to keep alive for years.

Detachment takes action - the action of changing one's thoughts - changing one's actions - changing one's beliefs where others in our lives are concerned.

I felt numb for a while after I finally understood the true meaning of detachment from actions that caused anxiety and confusion for others. As a matter fact, I felt numb most of last night.

But this morning, I knew that the belief I had tried to keep alive inside of me for so long, was gone; it had died into the past. In its place is the true belief that was living inside my spirit, waiting to come into my actions, my beliefs.

We have to consider if we are really "walking our talk."

As Richard Bach wrote so long ago in Illusions, "We teach best what we most need to learn."

Listen to the advice you are giving others. If you are giving the same advice to several people; if you are giving the same advice over and over, then this is a message for you.

I've taken my own advice and my world has changed for the better....

Ain't life just full of mysteries and ironies and paradoxes?

Wednesday, rain, new book

Ah December......

rain coming down sideways and I'm thinking of snow. I dreamed that snow was everywhere so I suppose it is coming to these old mountains soon.

Working hard on getting my new book of short stories out: The Boy With A Tree Growing From His Ear and Other Stories. You can get a peak at the cover and pre order one at my website soon. Books will be in right before Christmas!

Also, if you will go to NC Poet Laureate Kay Byer's blog - My Laureate's Lasso - and scroll down, you can read my poem "Traditional Mysteries Remain" which is included in the latest version of Appalachian Heritage - an issue dedicated to Cherokee writers.

Also, I have been working hard on getting ready for my next two workshops: Animal Medicine and Past Life.
I promise, those of you who have signed up will not be disappointed!

Stay strong, be creative, and don't forget to remember to give thanks....