My First Pictures

My son taught me how to use his camera.  But, I still don't know how to get the photos from the camera to the computer.  This is in front of my house this morning.  That is not our car.  Here in Brooklyn, it is very rare that you are able to park in front of your house.  Notice how clear the streets are already. 

This is the giant bush in my back yard.  I say bush because I am not really sure what it is.  It's leaves are not your typical bushlike leaves and almost look fake.  Its leaves always stay green and never fall off.  But it's real, and it has doubled in size since I moved here.  If anyone knows what it is, please let me know.

This is my backyard.  I am blessed to have a yard with this much land here in Brooklyn, but this is why I love this borough.  It is the best of both worlds...close enough to the city that you are there in 15 minutes...and a somewhat country-like atmosphere....in your backyard, that is.  So, there you have it.  My first ever digital pictures.  Not bad, huh???

The First Snow

The leaves were still raging with color when the first snow came to the silent mountains of the Earth Mother.   Looking down from the Spirit World, Wisdom Keeper breathed a sigh of relief, having feared that human beings had forgotten the importance of dreaming.  The appearance of the snowflakes, which held the patterns of the human hopes and aspirations in their frozen wheels, temporarily relieved the Medicine Guardian of her fears.

The Wise One remembered that less and less snow had come during the last few winters, and this realization troubled her.  Were her human children forgetting to use their imaginations?  Were they so busy that they had lost the will to recapture their innocence and wonder of life?  Had the false masks of sophistication robbed them of their common destiny?  She knew that the destiny of humankind was to remember who they were and to use their talents to dream the Coming World of Peace.

She sighed as she wondered how many would grasp the double meanings of the Remembering.  Had separation robbed her children  of  picking up the fragments of themselves and re-membering themselves into wholeness?  Could the Two-Legged Tribe of humans access their connection to the Great Mystery and claim the awareness that was their right?

She knew the answer.  Not without imagination, daring, freewill, and the power of the dreamer.  She also knew that all she could do was assist those who sought her out--and to trust that the dreamers will awaken. 

(From "Earth Medicine; Ancestors Ways of Harmony for Many Moons" bu Jamie Sams)

I wanted to share this today because I believe it says a lot.  Many of us have somehow lost our way.  We have lost our imaginations.  It is true that less and less snow has been falling for the past several years.  Does that really mean that we are forgetting?   I love Native American wisdom and hope to incorporate more of it into my blog during the coming year.  There is just so much to learn.