RED ROAD TO HEALING JOURNEY: Day 3

Day 3 (August 3, 2016):

Our day was like a roller coaster of emotions…the morning was a bit heavy. We did our Grief and Loss session and Shirley Dufour shared her story of her 10 years in Indian Residential School from the age of 5 years to 14 years.

Her story is as unique as her but thousands of children have the similar painful story no child should have ever went through. She shared her long road back which eventually lead her to where she is today as a 69 year old retired Social Worker. Her story is a story of deep deep pain but of also resilience and like she said, I am more than a “Survivor”. She is defiantly that, she is a Hero, a Warrior Woman, a Beautifully Vibrant Spirited Indigenous Woman… she is so much more that there are no words to describe her…you need to be in a space with her to feel her soul…and you will understand she is so so much more…the Creator wasn’t messing around when he made her hahaha

It was a special morning listening to her story and others sharing parts of themselves too…for some, they have never shared what they shared. This shows our group is getting stronger each day and this place is part of creating these strong connections…it’s so inviting, loving, and safe!

The afternoon was awesome with horse back riding. We got used to our horses more and Tracey showed us great skills as she is a professional horse trainer and it was nice to listen and learn. I loved riding Maverick for a bit and remembered how much I hate trotting lol. So Tracey had me do it so I can learn to like it…I used to hate it so much we used to just put the horses straight into full gallop, when we were kids…but it’s never too late to change my ways hahaha



For supper, Morgan taught us how to make a very healthy raw food meal called Pan Tai and it was absolutely amazing…we also talked of the importance of respecting the food as you prepare it and thinking good thoughts and putting love and care into the food so that the food also assists you, and those you prepared for, to eat a healthy foods that also heals and feeds your soul, mind, and spirit too.

We were laughing lots and told the others we put laughter into it and it was so true because during our supper we had the hardest laughs to the point my stomach was hurting and I was crying hahahaha.

I was eating cherries my mom brought from British Columbia and they made my mouth, teeth, and tongue purple and it made everyone laugh so hard…we couldn’t stop laughing…the healing was so amazing…and for those who really know me, I am VERY SHY (hee hee) jokes! I can already hear my family and friends as they read this say, “YA RIGHT” and laugh shaking there heads.

Yup I lost 3 pounds off my belly with all that laughing (hahahahaha…..)

Oh ya, on my afternoon walk around the huge lands area, I found some memekwesis (little people) and their entrance...so I think I will go take some things to them this weekend..always have to say hello to my Clan...

The evening was closed with some deep yoga…oh my, am I out of shape lol

I was stretching, ouching…if that is even a word…but if it isn’t, it is now!

It was all good though, so grateful for Callie doing Yoga with us and for being such a young woman, very inspiring to see a youth going to school to become a Yoga Instructor. I feel the same about Morgan, she is learning about Healthy Foods etc..and teaching us so so much. Kind of missing Brenda already and her teachings, this is Tracey’s sister who is teaching us all the medicines etc…but we will see her next week...YA!


Now Sheri is getting pretty prepped to be a hunter...she is learning Archery and damb...I'm already scared! 15 minutes in, she was hitting her targets...I yelled,"Hey sister, let your ancestral instincts kick in"...and all be dambed, she hit 4 arrows in all 4 directions...now if that isn't Indian enough for anyone, I don't know what is hahaha!

Humbled, Inspired, Healing, Loving, Laughter, Joy

…so many emotions today…we closed with Smores by the fire and good ol' fashion story telling.





I also posted some of my experiences so far on Facebook too...so check them out!

As for the end of the day...I walked back to my tent in the dark of night to Sheri snoring & she woke up saying she heard something outside...so there I was again outside checking to make sure she was safe...we wouldn't want Sasquatch to take a shining to her...hahaha...I might be bringing home another relative I didn't expect...8 foot tall and 400 pounds...but hey, we don't choose our relations!

RED ROAD TO HEALING JOURNEY: Day 2

Day 2 (August 2, 2016):

Every person who heals, helps heal all those who came before them and helps heal all those after them!

This was another full day.  We had our great morning breakfast and started the day with Shirley on our Grief and Loss sessions.  We met her today and she is Tim’s mother.  Tim is Tracey’s husband and they own the Painted Warriors Ranch and Archery.  They have collaborated with Shirley on this Intergenerational Trauma and Residential School Healing Program.

Book we are Reading

It was a tough morning with sharing and beginning our personal work.  We received our plan and expectations etc..  I wanted to start off into this program 100% as I feel I will get out of this program what I put into it…I’m really tired of carrying this crap and some of it isn’t mine but what I inherited. 

Even though I know this will be hard work, I’m grateful to let it go…I am so ready.  No matter how much a person heals, there is usually another layer waiting to be discovered and released…this is that time again because in the last three years I have not only seen my family dynamics and result of Indian Residential School Genocide over the years on my healing journey but also saw and was fully immersed in it at a nation/community level and at this level it’s so intense at times because it’s at such a destructive & heavy hearted level.  Meaning we see the result of genocide from looking at the high levels of social issues like high addictions, abuses, crime, lateral violence, suicides, poverty, neglected youth, elders, and children etc…

None of us are immune to it…we are all interconnected and it affects us all…WHY?  Because we are all related!

Just coming here, I had to place my family in Creator’s hands…because when I leave here, I pray my family will and is surviving…I say surviving because at this point they are no long living, they are surviving, which is sad and heartbreaking.

Healing Salves: Comfrey Oil & Infused Sage and Rosemary Oil

This is why I am giving 100% to this program, I don’t want to carry this anymore, I want my children (my son and daughter-law) and my grandchildren to find some sort of healing too…so they can start living and my grandbabies can live a life they deserve…a life with more love than pain, with more kindness than anger, more joy, laughter, freedom, and peace…than all the generations before them.

Bees Wax for Deodorant & Salves

Filling the deodorant Containers

Comfrey Compress for First Aid Wounds

Crushing Comfrey Leaf

Finished products: Deodorant & Healing Salves

As the day continued and our Grief and Loss session was over we learned how to make natural deodorants, pain salves, and healing compress with plants readily available and for pennies to make with basic tools and supplies.  All I know is I am sold…love returning back to our original teachings of accessing our healing medicines, foods, personal hygiene products off the land…

• Comfrey Compress: Crushed Comfrey Leaf to freeze and ready to heal wounds, bruises etc...speeds recovery.

Comfrey Leaves

• Yarrow & Popular Salve with Bees Wax Salve: Helps with pain relief, some arthritis, bruising etc..

• Sage & Rosemary with Bees Wax and Cocoa Butter Deodorant: Excellent underarm deodorant.  One thing we learned is that any products to be placed on your body should be eatable and if it's not, then usually not safe for the body as we absorb it through our skin and no different than eating it...we are what we eat, well..we are what we put on our bodies...
• You can also add Essential Oils into your deodorants depending on gender like Geranium, Clary Sage, & Ylang Ylang for Women and Juniper, Black Spruce, & Cedar Wood for Men.  These Essential Oils help balance the person & compliment their genetic makeup.

We ended the day with Yoga and chatting with each other after…the rain slowed our day a little. We didn’t get to spend time with the horses but that is another day…

Grateful for today and blessed to have met these amazing souls…journey on!

RED ROAD TO HEALING JOURNEY: 30 Day Personal Journey Grounded on the Land

DAY 1 (Monday, August 1, 2016):

Today was a memorable day of mixed feelings and awareness.  Today was the first day back on the lands, sleeping in canvas tents again like my childhood when mama would make the tents to keep us sheltered.  I am on Day one of a thirty day healing journey.  

The morning was being silly and having some fun...Sasquatch made an appearance hahaha...

It’s called the Red Road to Healing and our journey is to look and resolve, come to terms with, and release the crippling effects of Indian Residential School indoctrination which has created a life of it’s own and continues to be unconsciously enforced through the generations of our people.  Just like parenting skills and teachings are passed through the generations…as Indigenous Peoples, these sacred teachings of our peoples have been replaced by our oppressors and the genocide continues…we are a fractured people!

This is Day one of decolonizing my mind, heart, soul, and body…and recolonize back to our origin, as strong, proud self sustaining sovereign Indigenous Peoples of our lands…

Today was getting familiar with everyone, the lands, the animals and getting used to being and sharing these spaces for the next thirty days…

We did a little relaxation, learned to make some healthier meals over a camp fire with healthier living foods (greens etc) and wild meat.  We can Salad, Antelope Skewers, & Wild Rice.

Then we moved onto our next agenda, the Land – it continued to be our classroom and we walked the land and learned of foods and medicines our people have known for thousands and thousands of years like wild spinach, wild chia which is also flour, White Popular has a sweet sap for our sugar and for those who know the Creation Stories it helps with bone or wound repair, the White Popular was the tree Creator used to make our bones.  It’s white powder is also used to protect our skin too.  There are so many foods we can eat that non Indigenous society calls “weeds” but there are no weeds on our lands, there is only food and medicine…many medicines Western Society can not cure illnesses but ours can, including prevent illnesses & keep us healthy. 

Comfry

As my dear friend and brother, Dr. James Makokis and others like Elder Jim O’Chiese and others speak and teach about…it is no wonder our people can not be healed from the Western medicines, our medicines are made to heal the bodies of the people who come from these lands on Turtle Island…it is common sense!  Hahaha

Later we connected with the horse spirits and met our friends, allies etc.. for the next thirty days… my partner’s name is Maverick, he is about 12 years old and a beautiful gentle spirited horse but I can see some challenging spunk in him, he was testing me today (hahaha) but we soon became friends.  I look forward to getting on him tomorrow and riding like I did when I was a teen…I so miss horses.  They always remind me of my dad and brother, the days of rodeos, my grandparent’s family farm, and all the good times.

Today, I’m so grateful for this opportunity to commit and invest in Shannon and my healing.  I was in a very toxic environment created by the oppressors…an environment our people are unconsciously enforcing… that corrupt Indian Act system…but today, I am on a different journey and reconnecting to the laws of our people… on the land, taking in the water, breathing the air, and absorbing the sun…these are the real laws and the laws of treaty too…the ‘True Spirit and Intent” of Creation!

PS: These are my raw journals & as real as they will get in the moment I am feeling or experiencing them…they are mine, no one else’s, my perceptions, my journey; therefore, free of other’s opinions, unless you are in my head, heart, body, & soul!  Humbled respect!

Kinanâskomtinanawaw

wâpimahihkan

(White Wolf)

IF YOU CHOOSE TO LOVE AN AWAKENED WOMAN

If You Choose an Awakened Woman~

ON OCTOBER 22, 2015 BY ROBININ DIVINE ENERGIES

Original Post on October 22, 2015 by Robin in Devine Energies

https://sacreddreamsinspiration.wordpress.com/2015/10/22/awakened-woman/

IF YOU CHOOSE TO LOVE AN AWAKENED WOMAN~~

If you choose to love an awakened woman, understand that you are entering into new, radical and challenging territory.

If you choose to love an awakened woman, you cannot stay asleep.

If you choose to love an awakened woman, every part of your Soul will be aroused, not just your sexual organs or even your heart.

Frankly, if you prefer a normal life, stick with a normal girl.

If you want a tame life, seek only a woman who has allowed herself to be tamed.

If you only want to dip your toe into the flowing waters of Shakti, stay with the safe, tamed woman who has not yet plunged into the wildness of the Sacred Feminine ocean.

It is comfortable to love a woman who has not yet activated her inner sacred powers, because she does not push your buttons.

She will not challenge you.

She will not press you into becoming your highest Self.

She will not awaken the forgotten and numbed-out parts of your Spirit that urge you to remember that there is more to your Life here than this.

She will not look into your weary eyes and send a lightning bolt of Truth through your body, jolting you awake and stirring long-lost desires for Soul Love within you.

A safe, unawakened woman will be wonderfully satisfying and soothing to your ego, heart, and body. She will walk quietly beside you and make you feel needed, responsible, like you are fulfilling your manly role.

If this is enough for you then accept it, love her with all your heart, remain faithful to her and thank her daily for the gift of her mild, unthreatening feminine presence in your life.

If this is not enough for you – if your heart, body and spirit is only craving the ‘other kind of woman’, the Wild One – then know that you are on the cusp of Soul-Shifting transformation.

Know that you are making a serious choice with karmic consequences.

If you choose to step into the aura and body of a woman whose spiritual fires are blazing, you are accepting that you need a certain level of danger and risk in order to grow.

Once you begin to love a woman of this nature, you must accept total responsibility for the life-changes that will then ensue.

Your life will not be sleepily comfortable all the time. Your life will not allow you to stay stuck in old ruts and stagnant routines. Your life will take on a radically-new flavour and scent. You will be ignited by the presence of the Wild Feminine, and it will begin to send electric shockwaves of spiritual Light through your entire chakra system, attuning you to the Call of the Divine.

Choosing to be sexually and romantically-intimate with an awakened woman takes masculine courage to walk fearlessly into the Unknown. But it will reap rewards beyond your mind’s comprehension.

She will take you into undiscovered worlds of mystery and magic.

She will lead you, mesmerised and half-drunk with love, into the wild forests of sensual ecstasy and wonder.

She will show you sacred skies so full and burning with stars that you will start to wonder if you are still living on the same planet that you were born on.

She will break and tear you open so that your fierce, passionate heart drives you half-mad with longing. You will want to consume and penetrate her on every level so that your Masculine Essence can consume and penetrate the world – illuminating the Universe with your devoted Love.

She will see you like you’ve never been seen before.

She will trust you.

She will appreciate you.

She will acknowledge your efforts to make her happy.

She will value everything good that you do, and everything good that you are.

She will not run from your darkness, because your darkness does not scare her.

She will embrace, kiss, caress and love you back to Life. She will speak words that your Soul understands. She will not punish you for your mistakes.

It is a monumental risk to love an awakened woman, because there is suddenly no place to hide. She sees everything, therefore she can love you with a depth and presence that your heart and body have yearned for so hard, so long, so fiercely…that you wonder whether you have actually been alive for all the time that she has been away.

Loving a woman like this is a choice you make to start living with your Soul on fire.

Your life will never be the same again once you’ve invited her energy in.

Take this risk on yourself, or step back, stay with the normal girl and accept a different, safer, more comfortable and somewhat calmer life.

Just make sure that if you choose the latter, you don’t spend the rest of your days with your eyes looking back over your shoulder, straining to see once again the hazy vision of Feminine Mystery that has now disappeared from view.

She has long gone..spiralling back up to the Stars, the distant Galaxies and the Heavens…from where She came.

~Sophie Bashford

www.facebook.com/sophiebashfordintuitive

Peaceful demonstration to mark election day on Saddle Lake Cree Nation

Tuesday, June 14th, 2016 1:05pm

Saddle Lake Cree Nation Councillor Shannon Houle: leading a demonstration for Idle No More. (File photo) 

Shannon Houle, a name synonymous in Alberta with the Idle No More movement, will not be running for a second term as councillor for the Saddle Lake Cree Nation – despite filing her nomination paper for the June 1 deadline. The election is scheduled for June 15.

By Shari Narine
Sweetgrass Contributing Editor
SADDLE LAKE CREE NATION

ORIGINAL NEWS COVERAGE: http://www.windspeaker.com/news/sweetgrass-news/peaceful-demonstration-to-mark-election-day-on-saddle-lake-cree-nation/

Shannon Houle, a name synonymous in Alberta with the Idle No More movement, will not be running for a second term as councillor for the Saddle Lake Cree Nation – despite filing her nomination paper for the June 1 deadline.

“I’ve been given no explanation why I can’t run,” said Houle. “I feel as if I’m being targeted.”

The election is scheduled for June 15.

All other seven councillors and Chief Leonard Jackson successfully filed their nomination papers.

Houle is one of 10 people, who had their nominations rejected by what she calls an “unofficial appeal committee.” Members volunteered to sit on the appeal committee and were not appointed by council. Houle says she had to find out through other channels that her nomination had been rejected. She also noted that she has been unable to reach electoral officer Ron Lameman to express her concerns or to get his ruling.

Houle can’t understand why her nomination has been rejected, because if the basis is the custom election process used by Saddle Lake Cree Nation then Houle’s nomination three years ago shouldn’t have stood either.

According to the custom election, those who serve on council must reside on the First Nation and not be involved in a common-law relationship.

Houle has two family residences on the Saddle Lake Cree Nation – although one has been condemned in the past year and a half – and she has had the same common-law partner for the past 17 years. They were joined in ceremony by an Elder.

In 2013, five complaints were filed against Houle’s nomination. She pleaded her case to the electoral officer and her nomination was allowed. She was elected.

According to Dr. James Makokis that set a precedent and there was no reason to believe that Houle could not run for a second term.

But more than that, he says, the custom election followed by the First Nation is antiquated and needs to change.

“They’re not our nehiyaw wiyasiwewina, which is our own Cree laws. They’re actually Indian Actpolicies that our people were forced to create under duress at that time. So some of those that exist are very discriminatory,” said Makokis.

He points to the fact that 50 per cent of First Nations members live off reserve, a necessity for a number of reasons, including lack of adequate housing on the reserve and the desire to pursue higher education. Members who live off reserve can vote.

Makokis has joined Houle, as well as three other people, whose nominations were rejected – Greg Cardinal, Louise Large, and Valerie Steinhauer – in organizing a peaceful protest on Wednesday.

“Our immediate goal is to be reinstated. That way we have a choice and opportunity and the people have a choice and opportunity to vote,” said Houle. “We want this issue finally addressed and dealt with and no longer waiting for the hope of another council…. We’ve been doing this for too long.”

However, changing the custom election will not be an easy feat. Agreement on changes has to come from members from both the Saddle Lake Cree Nation and the Whitefish Lake Nation, which each have their own land base. At one point, the two First Nations were together, but in the 1970s two Chiefs were elected and two councils created. But as they are recognized as one Nation under the Indian Act, they must have joint council meetings and issues such as elections, land-base and membership, must be jointly decided.

Houle says working on the custom election had been on her agenda during this past term, but Whitefish Lake First Nation’s attention was focused on court action to separate from Saddle Lake Cree Nation. It was unsuccessful.

Makokis sees changing the custom election as a vital step to the First Nation’s survival.

“As a concerned physician, who’s worked in our nations from 2013 to 2015, seeing the conditions that our people live in and are suffering through, I am worried about the health of our people, the prosperity of our people, the well-being of our people, if well-informed, qualified candidates, and our own relations, are continued to be excluded from participating in what is supposed to be a democratic process,” he said.

Restoring Harmony in Our Nation, as Houle and Makokis’s group is called, is about bringing back Cree ways and bring attention to procedural irregularities in the present custom election system.

The demonstration walk will begin at 8 a.m. starting from the Bison Auto Gas Station and ending at the Ayiwakes Hall, where voters are marking their ballots.