"It's not what your child thinks of you now that's as important as what he thinks of you twenty years from now." Susan Alexander Yates

Wind Walker

Words of Wisdom and Inspiration

Mitakuye-Oyasin (mi-TAHK-wee-a-say) - Ojibway "We are all related" "When the forest weeps, the Anishinabe who listens will look back at the years. In each generation of Ojibway there will be a person who will hear the si-si-gwa-d, who will listen and remember and pass it on to the children." ~ Night Flying Woman ~ "Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation." ~ WindWalker ~ "Hau kola na tiyospaye" "These days people seek knowledge, not wisdom. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future," ~Vernon Cooper~ Spiritual elder of the Lumbee Tribe North Carolina 'EagleEye'- Picture by Kenneth M. Gowetski "Men are never manlier than when they are tender with their children...whether holding a baby in their arms, loving their grade-schooler, or hugging their teenager or adult children." -R. Kent Hughes- The Apache

Marriage

The Apache

Now you will feel no rain, For each of you will be shelter to the other. Now you will feel no cold, For each of you will be warmth for the other. Now there is no more loneliness for you, For each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two bodies, But there is only one life before you. Go now to your dwelling place, To enter into the days of your togetherness. And may your days be good, And long upon the Earth... -Apache Blessing-

"He could track as invisibly as a ghost, Appear or disappear As silently as a shadow... The dusty warrior, With a dash of color at the headband Or in the Pima-like turban, Was seldom seen, And if seen, Was seldom hit, And if hit, Was seldom knocked down to stay." -Captain John G. Bourke/U. S. Calvary-

Geronimo

Life and Death

~Prayer~

Even such is time, that takes in trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with age and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days. But from this Earth, this grave, this dust, My God shall raise me up, I trust!

"I cannot think that we are useless, Or God would not have created us. There is one God, Looking down on us all. We are all the children of God. The sun, the darkness, The winds are all listening To what we have to say".

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose"

"The road to a friends house is never too long."

-Robert Byrne-

-Danish Proverb-

"Love does not begin and end the way we seem

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched....

to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war;

They must be felt."

Love is a growing up."

-Wind Walker-

-James Baldwin-

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see."

"You will find as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you have truly lived, are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love."

-John Burrough-

-Henry Drummond-

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon,

"No man begins to be

but that we wait so long to begin it."

until he has seen his vision."

-Wind Walker-

-Ojibway-

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future,

concentrate the mind on the present moment."

-Buddha-

-Gandhi-

"The question is not whether we will die,

"There is no greater legacy for a man to leave than wisdom."

But how we will live."

-Howard Hendricks-

-Joan Borysenko-

"Dreams are the touchstones of our character."

"It's not the length of life, but depth of life."

Corn Singer Kachina

-Henry David Thoreau-

-Ralph Waldo Emerson- "If the wind will not serve, take to the oars." ~Latin Proverb ~

"Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all the world - hear me - I come before you, one of your children. I am small and weak. I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made, my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me so wise, so that I may know the things you have taught my People, the lesson you have hidden in every leaf and rock. I seek strength not to be superior to my brothers, but to be able to fight my greatest enemy, Myself. Make me ever ready to come to you, with clean hands and straight eyes, so when life fades as a fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame." ~Ojibway~ 'May the Spirits surround you and protect you on your journey through life.'~Wind Walker~ If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian...we can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike.... give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognised as men. Let me be a free man...free to travel...free to stop...free to work...free to choose my own teachers...free to follow the religion of my Fathers...free to think and talk and act for myself." ~Chief Joseph~ "You said that you wanted to put us upon a reservation, to build us houses...I do not want them.I was born upon the Prairie, where the Wind blew free and there...were no enclosures and everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls...The white man has the country we loved, and we only wish to wander on the Prairie until we die." ~Ten Bears (Comanche)~ Rhonda Angel "Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom - an intense and absorbing love for nature; a respect for life; enriching faith in a Supreme Power; and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations." ~Luther Standing Bear(1868-1939)~ "There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled, which leads to an unknown, secret place. The old people came literally to love the soil, and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. Their teepees were built upon the earth and their alters were made of earth. The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing. That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him." ~Chief Luther Standing Bear~

"May the Great Spirit blow softly upon your house. Bless all that enter there. May your moccasins make happy tracks, in many snows. And may the rainbow always touch your shoulder." ~Cherokee Prayer~

"Authentic men aren't afraid to show affection, release their feelings, hug their children, cry when they're sad, admit it when they're wrong, and ask for help when they need it." ~Charles Swindoll~

"Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey."

"We Indians think of Earth and the universe as a never-ending circle, and in this circle, man is just another animal. the buffalo and the coyote are our brothers, the birds, our cousins. We must end our prayers with the words 'in all my relations."

-Leading Cloud-

"Our kids are like two-legged mirrors, reflecting a lot of what is inside us. Sometimes the reflection is amusing, sometimes it's affirming, other times it's alarming. When parents look at their children, they ultimately find they are also looking at themselves." ~Ron Hutchcraft~ "Love your life, perfect your life, Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long, and its purpose in the service of your people." ~Chief Tecumseh~ "Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of the little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss." ~Black Elk, Lakota Medicine Man~ All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two — good and evil. With our eyes we see two things — things that are fair and things that are ugly . . . . We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two... ~Eagle Chief, Letakots-Lesa, Pawnee~

"I am not a happy person. I am a cheerful person. There is a difference. A happy person has no cares at all. A cheerful person has cares, but has learned how to deal with them." ~Beverly Sills~ "Peace comes within the souls of men, when they realize their oneness with the Universe, when they realize it is really everywhere... it is within each one of us." ~Black Elk, Lakota Medicine Man~ "When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself...." ~Tecumseh Shawnee~ We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that. ~Chief Joseph of the Nez Percés-1873~

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles and everything tries to be round. Our power came to us from the scared hoop of the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop. and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west rain, and the north with it's cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The Sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball and so is the stars. The Wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The Sun comes up and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tipis were round like the nests of birds and they were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children." ~Black Elk~ (Oglala Sioux 1863 - 1950)

"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to this web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." ~Chief Seattle~ (1786 - 1866) "I am the color of Red. You are the color of Black. Then came the color of White. My land was taken from me. You were taken from your land. The Spirits have blessed us with water for many seasons. The Spirits had blessed you with a safe sojourn across their vast waters. We have struggled through many seasons’. We have our place now. As you have your place." ~Wind Walker~ "And when the last red man shall have perished from this earth and his memory among white men shall have become a myth, the shores shall swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children shall think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highways or in the silence of the woods, they shall not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages shall be silent, and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land. The white man will never be alone." ~Chief Seattle~ Hold on to what is good, even if it is a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe, even when you are a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do, even if it is a long ways away. Hold on to your life, even when it is easier to let go. And hold on to my hand, even when I have gone away from you. ~Vivian Wright~ "When the forest weeps, the Anishinabe who listens will look back at the years. In each generation of Ojibway there will be a person who will hear the si-si-gwa-d, who will listen and remember and pass it on to the children." ~ Night Flying Woman ~ Ojibway "We held our dying children and felt thin little bodies tremble as their souls went out and left only a dead weight in our hands." ~Red Cloud~ Red Clouds' farewell address to the Lakota people on July 4, 1903: "My sun is set. My day is done. Darkness is stealing over me. Before I lie down to rise no more, I will speak to my people. "Hear me, my friends, for it is not the time for me to tell you a lie. The Great Spirit made us, the Indians, and gave us this land we live in. He gave us the buffalo, the antelope, and the deer for food and clothing. We moved our hunting grounds from the Minnesota to the Platte and from the Mississippi to the great mountains. No one put bounds on us. We were free as the winds, and like the eagle, heard no man's commands. "I was born a Lakota and I shall die a Lakota. Before the white man came to our country, the Lakotas were a free people. They made their own laws and governed themselves as it seemed good to them. The priests and ministers tell us that we lived wickedly when we lived before the white man came among us. Whose fault was this? We lived right as we were taught it was right. Shall we be punished for this? I am not sure that what these people tell me is true. As a child I was taught the Taku Wakan (Supernatural Powers) were powerful and could do strange things. This was taught me by the wise men and the shamans. They taught me that I could gain their favor by being kind to my people and brave before my enemies; by telling the truth and living straight; by fighting for my people and their hunting grounds. "When the Lakotas believed these things they were happy and they died satisfied. What more than this can that which the white man offers us give? "Taku Shanskan is familiar with my spirit and when I die I will go with him. Then I will be with my forefathers. If this is not in the heaven of the white man I shall be satisfied. He is my father. The Wakan Tanka of the white man has overcome him. But I shall remain true to him. "Shadows are long and dark before me. I shall soon lie down to rise no more. While my spirit is with my body the smoke of my breath shall be towards the Sun for he knows all things and knows that I am still true to him." ~Red Cloud (1822-1909)~

"Choose the right path in life,

And walk peacefully into your journey."

-Wind Walker-

"Gaa wiin daa-aangoshkigaazo ahaw enaabiyaan gaa-inaabid" ~Ojibway~

Rhonda Angel

Wind Walker ~ChazzCreations 1999~ Last Update: 11/16/2008 Background Music By Elan Michaels "Earth & Sky"