Nature | Cultural Glimpse

November 26, 2015

I’m Most Grateful for Graduating this Year

Morning of Graduation

When I graduated high school, I did not walk at commencements. I did not view my high school diploma as much of an accomplishment. When three years later, I received my bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University, I again did not walk at commencements. Although I enjoyed my college years and was happy to attain my degree, I felt there was something missing. I had a deep desire to learn more about myself and real life that seemed beyond what formal education could teach.

For the next two decades, I studied with various spiritual masters and took umpteen writing courses. All were wonderful experiences that helped me grow and flourish as a person and a writer, but most importantly, they led me to an extraordinary school, Lynn Andrews’ four-year shamanic school. I had initially signed up to the school to find my literary voice which had gotten lost by the pains of witnessing the Iraq war and by my enormous responsibilities as a wife and new mother.

I had no idea then that the school’s ancient teachings would not only heal old wounds that had muffled my literary voice, but that it would also improve my relationship with the Great Spirit, with myself, and with my family. The work was mystical but also very intense and challenging. I had to put my heart and soul into my family, home and career while doing the schoolwork because the purpose of these teachings is to incorporate what we learn into every aspect of our daily life.

Last month, I flew to Arizona to join other apprentices in a gathering where we graduated from Lynn’s school. This time, I walked at commencements in a most sacred ceremony. I had taken a life-changing journey and was now surrounded by amazing women from all walks of life. For me, this was a real milestone that was worthy of celebration.

This Thanksgiving, I give special gratitude for graduating from a school that had, not long ago, only existed in my imagination.

For more information about Lynn and her school, you can visit her website: http://lynnandrews.com/

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September 26, 2015

My Lovely New Garden… Inspired by Frankenmuth

My family went to Frankenmuth for Labor Day weekend and the very first day that we returned home I bought a rocking bench to put on our front porch, and the next day, I told my husband that we had to change our landscape. The jungle we had in the front of our house was getting out of control, and it was ugly. And it looked even uglier after I had the opportunity to sit amongst the lovely landscape and floral displays in Frankenmuth.

He said, “Sure, I’ll do it next spring.”

That statement was not promising so I started looking for a landscape gardener. Within less than a month, my landscape was transformed. I replaced gigantic bushes with lots of colorful flowers, an apple tree and a pear tree. After ten years of living in this house, I’m finally able to enjoy my front yard.

I always say you don’t need to travel far to find inspiration, and this is a perfect example. A town that’s only one hour away from my home truly inspired me, not only with regards to the landscaping but with its other splendors.

Frankenmuth, nicknamed “Little Bavaria”, has a population of roughly 5,000 people. It’s a beautiful city that has more than three million visitors each year. It is famous for Zender’s Restaurant, which serves homemade Bavarian chicken, and for Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, the world’s largest Christmas store.

The night we were there, we rode a horse carriage where we saw a house where the same family has lived for over a hundred years. We learned from the horse carriage driver that the owner of Zender’s Restaurant is 94 years old and that she still works every day in the kitchen, except for Monday. Mondays she teaches her grandchildren how to bake. This bit of information made me feel quite young. Another brownie point for Frankenmuth!

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February 26, 2015

Combining Yoga and Journaling

I love journaling and I love yoga. So when my niece Sandy, a yoga instructor, asked me to participate in a trial yoga and journaling class for her upcoming studio workshop, I was delighted to do so. I have been doing yoga for over ten years and many instructors have incorporated creative ideas along with this practice but journaling was never one of them – although it makes perfect sense to combine the two.

Many times in my yoga class the instructor would say a profound statement or I myself received an inner message, a revelation which I wanted to jot down. I would remind myself to take note of these things at home, only to get too preoccupied. I’d leave the yoga studio, pick up my children from the daycare center, and arrive home to a list of unfinished household chores. By nighttime, whatever I wanted to write left my mind and like a bird flew into the sky.

When Sandy led this yoga and journaling class Tuesday afternoon, I enjoyed the moments in between the meditations and yoga movements where we had the opportunity to look within and write about certain experiences. It was a lovely, meaningful and deep way to start the day, with its positive energy spilling over into the evening and night.

As I write this, I recall an interview with Billy Hayes, who wrote a book about his life in a Turkish prison, Midnight Express. The story was later made into an award winning film by Oliver Stone. Hayes says that yoga saved his life in jail.

“Stress kills,” Hayes said in the interview. “Yoga keeps me healthy, helps me chill. Emotionally, it keeps me balanced. It saved me in jail. In prison, you have no control over anything except you; you still have yourself, your own body, so yoga gives you back that control that the prison takes away.”

Today Hayes works with James Fox on the Prison Yoga Project.

Writing has had a similar healing, growing and thriving effect on people.

“When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.” Michael Leboeuf

Imagine the power of combining these two activities into our regular routine.

For more information about this workshop, visit www.sandynaimou.com

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February 26, 2015

Create a Paradise

From Walk in Balance by Lynn Andrews – a book of daily meditations

You see, in a way I have created my own paradise. What we create in the world, we must first create within ourselves. A long time ago, I realized that we can either live in hell on this earth or we can live in a land of peace and joy, what one might call a paradise. There are really only two ways to live. If one is to find heaven, one has to open one’s heart to love. That is the moon gate that one has to walk through to find eternal peace.”

Shakkai Shakkai, Woman of the Sacred Garden

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February 4, 2015

In Honor of the Jordanian Pilot Killed by ISIS

Cradle of Humankind

Lynn Andrew’s Walk in Balance has daily readings filled with ancient wisdom. For February 3, the following is the teaching:

Respect the Unknown

Great evil has been done on earth by people who think they have all the answers. They have no respect for the unknown. If you do not see all sides of truth and you think that only what you understand is valid, then you dishonor power. You ignore much of the body of the Great Spirit. The body of the Great Spirit is all creation.

We are limited as human beings. Most humans live in a tiny little world where only their own perceptions are accepted as real. They will kill for those perceptions. I am asking you to respect what you don’t see. Give humble respect to what is unknown and unknowable in the universe.

Ruby Plenty Chiefs

Crystal Woman

* * * * *

Given the cruel manner in which the Jordanian pilot was burned to death by ISIS today, the February 3rd teaching is most appropriate to describe what is happening in our world.

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August 28, 2014

Where’s the Doritos?

“I feel so bad for the squirrels,” my sister said. “The trees were not very fruitful this year so they don’t have enough to eat.”

“Oh, that explains why they’ve been gathering at my patio,” I said, and told her how today, for instance, a squirrel came by and fought to open my can of Pam near the barbecue grill. He rolled with it until it fell onto the grass and he jumped after it. Ten minutes later, I found its red lid on top of the swing set.

I also told her how a few days ago my children forgot a bag of Doritos outside overnight. In the morning, a squirrel appeared, sniffing around until he reached the Doritos bag. He ate from it, and then his friends came and ate from it. The next several days, different colored squirrels stopped by looking for food. In the past, I have given them bread, cookies, cereal. But at one point, they started to get too close for comfort, coming right up to my slide door.

“If the trees are not fruitful,” I said to my sister, “how come this year I have seen more squirrels than ever before in this area?”

She pondered on that, but had no answer. I think in America, everyone is fed well, even the squirrels.

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June 28, 2014

Michael Czarnecki’s Rich Life

Whenever I receive a journal entry from Wheeler Hill Journal, I stop and stare at the words for a moment. I remember the author, Michael Czarnecki, whom I met at Oakland Community College years ago. We had sat around a table with two other women. I listened to him tell how in 1995, he decided to quit selling wine and make a living being a poet, publisher, oral memoirist and encourager, a decision which gave him the pleasure of going on “poetic road journeys” with his son.

In his recent entry, Czarnecki talks about how his family, who lives on Wheeler Hill near his Amish neighbors, has identified 92 species of flowers on the property as of today.

“We have been doing this for a little over a decade now,” he wrote. Last year, they counted 161 flowers, which was a record. The Czarnecki family also keeps track of the birds every year. Their average yearly count has been in the seventies.

Whenever Czarnecki shares his adventures, I am in awe to this rich life that like that of multi-millionaires, seems not easily attainable, belongs to the courageous that honor their lives enough to go after their dreams and live life to the fullest.
May such people’s lives inspire all of us to listen to and honor our calling!

Many of Czarnecki’s photos are featured on this Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202120850374166.1073741830.1575191103&type=1&l=55ed56ef1d

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March 22, 2014

Bring the Rain Forest to Your School

When I saw a brochure in my daughter’s folder with photos of exotic birds, snakes, monkeys and alligators, with the words live on stage I thought, “There has to be a catch. No way would an elementary school have a program as interesting as this brochure claims to be.” But in case it was real, I was not going to take a chance of missing this show.

Well, the show was way beyond my expectations. Not only was it entertaining, but it was educational and designed specifically for kindergarten through sixth grade.

“We do this because we believe if you see how beautiful and intelligent these animals are, then you will help the rain forest,” said the trainer.

The animals sure were intelligent. A McCaw flew over the crowd to grab a dollar from the hand of a volunteer audience member, and later returned it to his hand. A capuchin monkey drank from a Sippy cup. Kids got to get kissed by parrots. People got to pet alligators and take pictures with snakes. It was wonderful! Ninety minutes of pure lively entertainment and at half the cost of going to the movies.

When the time was up, the trainer said, “It’s getting late and you guys are just about ready to go home, right?”

“No!” the kids literally screamed.

It was great to see how creatively the trainers incorporated the live animals to deliver a powerful message.

“It’s really up to you and me and how we choose to live our lives that will save the rain forests,” he said. “So get involved! Because together we will make a difference!”

To bring the rainforest to your school, contact your school and tell them about this incredible show: http://www.therainforestlive.com/index.php/reference-letters 1-888-738-0398

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March 12, 2014

Opossum and the Apples

I often saw paw tracks on the snow covering our deck in the backyard. I assumed it belonged to the black and white cat that passed by every now and then. Feeling sorry for it in this cold winter weather, I threw four apples outside. I figured either the cat or the squirrels or birds would eat them.

A few days ago I saw an opossum chowing down the apples like there’s no tomorrow. He ate three of them, half of the forth one, and the next day came back and finished the other half. The thing about him is that he’s bold. He was not scared of my children knocking on the glass door.

In the Native tradition, when an opossum shows up, you are to check appearances. Are there people around you putting up false appearances? Is your attention being diverted? A possum teaches that it is sometimes better to hide our strengths and not to fight, but to divert attention and stay out of the fight. He also teaches to rest when needed, by playing dead.

While an opossum’s teachings are great, I don’t think I’ll be throwing out anymore apples into our backyard.

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March 9, 2014

Can You Help Save the Wolves?

It isn’t every day that someone asks you, “Can you help save the wolves?”

That’s what a woman standing in front of the Sterling Heights Library asked me the other day. My daughter and I stopped and looked at her. She was wrapped in layers of clothes and had on bright red lipstick. She extended a petition towards us and said, “Please, they’re killing the wolves, and it’s not fair.”

Many Native Americans in Michigan oppose killing wolves, an animal central to their spirituality and culture.

“In the Native American tradition, the wolf is my power animal,” I told the lady and signed the petition.

She stared at me and told me a little about “Keep Michigan Wolves Protected.”

Last December Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill that designated wolves as a game animal. After 50 years of protection, the population of wolves in Michigan is still estimated to be fewer than 700. Michigan farmers, ranchers and other landowners are already permitted to kill wolves to protect livestock or dogs, even though cases of wolves killing livestock are relatively rare. And ranchers are compensated for livestock losses from wolves. There has also never been a single record of a wolf attack on a human in Michigan. In fact, wolves are fearful of people, and avoid them.

Jill Fritz, director of the Keep Michigan Wolves Protected Campaign feels that “This shy and very intelligent species is being gunned down for no other reason than trophies.”

The campaign hopes to gather 225,000 signatures by March 27. To date, they have nearly 200,000.

When we walked away from the woman, my daughter cheered, “Yeah! Mommy saved the wolves!”

“Well,” I explained. “Something like this needs a lot of people’s votes.”

To sign the petition, please visit: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/568/255/382/michigan-keep-wolves-protected/

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Category: Nature