CONTROL Intellectually i know IT is about letting go of micromanagement control. The heart clearly knows it is about letting go of this kind of control. IT being this dance in and through life here on Turtle Island. Trying to totally manage the chaos actually prevents homeostasis. Being able to dance and move with changes to maintain balance sometimes requires pre-conscious level choices ... letting go of control. There is a choice: MAINTAIN CONTROL which brings with it nervousness, anxiety and the uneasy gut ... or ... LETTING GO OF CONTROL and being flowing and alive in the moment. Being in human form, there is usually a level of moving between the two. How good it feels to let go and be in the moment: breathing in the living air of the Mother Earth, drinking her water of life, letting the day take care of itself. i have a feeling (which may or may not be accurate) to completely relinquish control may be to also relinquish this human life. So it is a balance. Breathing in. Breathing out. Taking in. Giving out. Taking control. Releasing control. The suffering is as beautiful and the joy. The night as beautiful as the day. The poignant sweetness of this life brings gratitude. A family member made the journey yesterday. While here on The Mother he embraced Her and all of Her Gifts with love and a thankful heart. He took care of business and he gave his life to prayer. He loved his wife and he loved his daughter. He called things as he saw them and was honest in a refreshing way. He moved into the direction of his heart with intention. When he saw the direction was set to journey, he went with the flow. He did not seek to control this thing. He laid down prayers and went with the flow. We will miss you dear one. We are grateful we were able to spend some time with you. Your bravery is an example to emulate.

With love and respect ... Wopila / Thank You ... Good Journey

KNOWING We know what is so clearly. Yet we insist on pretending we do not know. Why do we do this? Think about it honestly - it is very rare for you to be really surprised by events. You pretend to be surprised but you are not really surprised - except in rare circumstances. Sometimes truth comes quiet but often she comes like a great crow cawing loudly and looming large in the tree next to you. Even when crow does come quiet like the dark of her night feathers, she is after all a creature of the day and can be clearly seen if we will only look and see. We have agreed to dance. We have agreed to dance with our partners, friends, family. Even those we meet only one time and never again we have agreed to this dance with them. We agreed to be born into this life. The Mother Earth welcomes us. We are her children. In dreamtime some years back i was shown / given a message which i continue to carry with me: I am in a high place with my family. We all love each other very much and know we are family. There is no one and there is no thing that is not family. We are all connected. We are all related. The Teacher asks us if we will enact a play. We all agree to be in this play. Some of us will play the part of 'bad guy' and some of us will play the part of 'good guy'. We are all admonished to remember - "This is only a play. It is not real. We are all family." The play begins. I am given the part with some of the family to be a human type creature but with wings to fly high in the sun light. Other family members are like great slugs who move through the mud in the deep places of the earth and never see the sun. As part of this great play we are to 'pretend' to be enemies. We are to pretend to fight one another as the light opposing the dark. In the beginning i remember and know that those slug people are my beloved family. However, somewhere along the way i forget. Somewhere along the way i come to think that i am a beautiful being of light and they are ugly creatures of dark to be destroyed. Then in a twinkling the play is over. The teacher is so sad. Many of us forgot it was only a play. We did not just pretend to attempt to destroy each other. From the deep places of our being we really tried to end the existence of the the other. How often do we bury our knowing of truth? How often do we forget that we are family so we can make it 'okay' to take from one another without concern for how the other is affected? This one has lived a gluttonous life. How long will i pretend to not know truth? Again the commitment is made to walk with you as family. Please forgive me, i forget.

Mitakuye Oyasin All My Relations