I thought you might be touched by this excerpt from a poem by Richard Bienvenu. He wrote it while tending a sacred fire at SpiritQuest. For those of us who have ever sat before a fire tending to it lovingly to keep it alive, I’m sure you will appreciate the calling and sacred space he describes. You can read the entire poem at http://www.spiritquest.info/poetry.html
By the fire
I sit soul in hand.
Sunlight scatters through the trees
Wind manipulates the branches.
This sacred place
sacred space
A time of no time
Where the world stops
And we are renewed.
Fire sings fire dances
Fire calls to me
“Begin again,” it says
I will light the way
Call you to renew.”
Call you again and again
Call you to the circle.
fyi to be clear this link is to our Turtle Island Project blog not Indian Country Today.Although, do have several ICT artcelis coming out this week and next.The Turtle Island Project was founded in the U.P. three years ago by Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard and Rev. Dr. George Cairns of Chesterton, IN.Among many things, they helped raise money for the White Buffalo Calf Women’s Society on the Lakota Sioux Rosebud reservation in South Dakota.Plus brought awareness to the ongoing Lakota teen suicide crisis.Many describe the Rosebud Reservation and its sister the infamous Pine Ridge Reservation as like a third world countries.Rev. Cairns is a professor emeritus from the Chicago Theological Seminary and active in Celtic Christianity.Rev. Hubbard, who lived in Munising, is now executive director of the remote Navajo Lutheran Mission in Arizona.Where he has implemented the Mission in Reverse model.Meaning they put a great level of respect and teachings on Navajo heritage, culture and traditional beliefs unlike many missions that focus only on Bible.The young Navajo students are taught it is important to follow the tribal belief system and to learn from their parents and other elders the way of the Navajo.