BE BRAVE

Be a man.  Be a woman.  Be brave. These simple words are a constant admonishment among and within the tribal heritage I come from.  

It’s a bright clear summer morning, no haze, sun already hot and pumping the solar well.  Water flows to thirsty plants.  “Be a man.” I hear the words and I remember.  Be a man. Be brave. Even in this drought, a big rain will come.  The aquifer will refill.  This is why water catchment on the land is important, always building and making diversions and ways to slow runoff when there appears to be no water.  It will come, a flood of water.  

Here, on the “listening ground,” I can easily hear the simple words coming to me.  They help me remember, right here where I am, this is the listening ground, this being that I am.  It’s a real place, an inward space that has outward influence, for good or bad. It’s a place on the earth.  Not the center of the earth necessarily, just a particular spot.  A place you find yourself in the moment and in that place you can now feel deeply.  You are humbled to know the feeling of this place and you are filled with thanksgiving.  Gratitude for being the being you find in that very place, on that spot. 

Be a man, a woman, be brave. This isn’t just a woeful plea or a superstitious utterance.  It’s a verbal connection to what I call: Tribal American Orality. This orality is carried and spoken through stories.  Everyone is a teller of stories and storytellers evolve and become consecrated individuals and then through learning to listen, they are the story-listeners. 

At first tribal people appear closely knit because they’re tribal family; kinsmen.  Over time one can discover, it’s more than blood that weaves them together.  Sometimes it shows up as the appearance of being quiet or just not having anything to say.  Or it could look like simple reluctance to divulge what they seem to know. These are all clues for learning to slow down, quit making assumptions and asking so many questions.  Right there is the first question.  “How will I learn anything, if I don’t ask?” 

Developing relationships to all, is a first step and leads to our connection.  Hobah Hanu. All the People. Amuu Hanu, Amuu Haadtsi.  Beloved People, Beloved Land. This is one of the ways it’s spoken by my people.  The words speak of a “felt relationship.” It’s a love coming through acceptance for all the People, and including everything beyond humankind. It’s a coming to relate to “Creation” as alive and all encompassing.  

Impossible?  Listen closely to the stories, they connect to all time past, present, and future.  They help us see and become our magnificence.  Be brave, be a man.  Alive in stories is the spoken word as it is experienced over and over, again and again.  Stories are alive when the living being makes a link to all that has ever been through their ability to collect all the stories they have been given through all the lives of humans to whom they have paid attention and taken in all that living words can give.  Stories aren’t collections of information like some huge library. They are alive and collected over time within the hearts of anyone who has a moment to share them.  The story-listener is drawn to stories much like honeybees are drawn to pollen.  They are both alive to discover a vibrant, rich source that nourishes and sustains them in a natural balance and all harmonious action.  Their lives thrive in their activity. 

My activity, because, “I’m the man who walked away from the Rez,” is finding my way home.  Finding home isn’t hard.  Home is who I carry within.  Difficulties arise when I appear drunk in my spirit, with exuberant enthusiasm at being part of something so divinely ordered and then self-appointed authorities stop me and question my citizenship, my identity and my credentials.

The simplicity of being God’s child on earth can be easily overlooked and dismissed by people living a fast paced techno-electronic directed existence.  What’s hard to comprehend is simple walking on the land.  Walking across and over land without a predetermined destination in mind. How hard is that?  Very hard, for the major world populations influenced by the attractive projected appearance of western society enjoying and partaking in all the delights being offered.  Giving expression to the dilemma of a crumbling social order in America, is really what the “walk-on-earth” is about.  Not much changes for the humans still able to listen and who follow the prompting of their want to be human.