Just encountered this photograph. It brings back many good memories.
My Sun Dance Teacher, 1980-1982, on the right was Petaga Yuha Mani, He Who Walks With Hot Coals, Pete Catches Sr. We danced at Little Eagle, hosted by Joe Flying By and extended family. I will always have great love and respect for Tahansi Tom Goldtooth, who devoted his life to caring for Lekshi Pete in the last years of his life.
My sponsors were my Dekshi Reginald Bird Horse and my Thunwín Marguerite Fiddler. My Thunwin, Pat Locke, Tahansi Kevin Locke, and beloved family always surrounded me with great love, kindness, and cultural kindness. So many relatives are coming to mind, like Deksi's Pete and Vernon Iron Cloud, and so many more.
Another Sun Dance brother who always treated me with love and kindness, who I will never forget with great love, respect, and gratitude, is Virgil Taken Alive. We laughed a lot. Virgil's younger brother, Jesse "Jay," was our Lead Dancer.
My beloved father was with me every step of the way, including preparing my hardwood skewers for piercing. While I could not tell you what I had for lunch yesterday, as I grow older and slowly become an elder, like my beloved father, I can remember past years as if they were yesterday.
On the left is my Leksi John Fire Lame Deer, who I was very honored to assist when he dedicated the land where the Day Break Star Cultural Center was to be built. Leksi used On the left is my Leksi John Fire Lame Deer, who I was very honored to assist when he dedicated the land where the Day Break Star Cultural Center was to be built. Leksi used the first pipe made and given to me by my Unchi Anna Heals With Medicine, mother of my Tunwins Marguerite Fiddler and Bea Medicine.
Another Sun Dance brother who always treated me with love and kindness, who I will never forget with great love, respect, and gratitude, is Virgil Taken Alive. We laughed a lot. Virgil's older brother, Jesse "Jay," was our Lead Dancer.
On the left is my Leksi John Fire Lame Deer, who I was very honored to assist when he dedicated the land where the Day Break Star Cultural Center was to be built. Leksi used the first pipe made and given to me by my Unchi Anna Heals With Medicine, mother of my Tunwins Marguerite Fiddler and Bea Medicine.
I will conclude this early morning before sleeping, remembering with great love and respect my Tahansi Greg Sherwood. Tahansi Greg has a kindness, love, dignity, humility, gentleness, compassion, and justice about him that no one I have had the honor to meet in my life has ever surpassed.
We share our grandmother Martina Sherwood and Deksi's Bob and Don Sherwood. Unchi Martina was also best friends with my Unchi Lyma Deloria Lane. Our Grandfathers, Harry Sherwood, and Fred Lane, were also best friends.
With these beautiful memories vibrating in my soul, I will sleep well in the world beyond this world of time and space.
I am very thankful to understand, at times like this, from experience, these dimensions of our Soul.
Our soul is independent of and the very source of our body's existence. If our body is destroyed, our soul and spirit remain unharmed.
Our soul, our human spirit, is independent of our physical body. Our soul is free and sanctified beyond this physical plane of time and space.
All the powers that distinguish us as Human Beings - reason, memory, abstract thought, creativeness, inventiveness, willpower - Are all properties of our Soul - Not the body.
A love that anyone may have had for anyone will not be forgotten in the spiritual world, nor will we forget our life in this physical world.
In the spiritual world, we will recognize one another. We will seek union, a spiritual union.
Our soul's relationship with our body is like the connection between a lamp and a mirror. If the mirror is polished and perfected, the lamp's light appears, but if the mirror is broken or covered with dust, the light remains concealed.
Our rational soul—the human spirit—does not descend into our bodies or exist through our physical bodies. It is just the opposite. Our soul is the substance and foundation upon which our body depends for existence.
The soul has no gender, race, ethnicity, or class. This reality makes all forms of prejudice, whatever they may be, intolerable and unacceptable. The soul is not divided. It is a reflection of the oneness of our Creator.
Our soul is endowed from our beginning, in this physical world of time and space, with its own individuality. Our soul does not acquire it because of our body.
The individuality and identity of our soul are strengthened in this physical world through our spiritual tests and challenges.
Thank you, Beloved Creator, for your never-ending love and inspiration!
Chanupa Sapa and Shunkmanu, Ihanktonwan, and Chickasaw Nations
