Ask And Ye Shall Receive

I've been studying Native American history and spiritual traditions for more than 25 years.  I'm not sure where my fascination began.... maybe it was the family vacation as a kid to the Arizona or learning as a teenager that my great great grandmother was from the Iroquois nation.  Later, I read many stories about white people who learned the ways of the Great Spirit from native elders and I always wondered how those folks got so lucky.  I guess it was their karma.  Well, my time finally came yesterday!


I was invited by my neighbor to attend a sweat lodge here in town.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I was told to wear natural fiber loose clothing and bring a shawl.  Once I arrived I was thrilled to learn that our lodge had been built and blessed by the Chumash, Hopi, Lakota and Cherokee nations.  Our beautiful and wise lodge leader was a Lakota/Cherokee woman who is the matriarch of her clan.  She learned the "ways" from her grandmother and great grandmother.  In addition, there were 8 other women "guests" (it was a women's only lodge that day) and two fire keepers.  The lodge was about 10' in diameter and maybe 5 feet high with a small opening ("gate") to climb in.... very similar to the lodge in the photo below.  


Once we were all inside, the heated stones (from a large fire just outside the lodge) were rolled in and then gate was closed.  We all sat in a circle in pitch black.  After every "round", the gate was opened to add more heated rocks and to re-hydrate ourselves.  We sweated and prayed for over three hours.

Before the experience, I assumed that I would be exhausted after a sweat, like a hard workout.  I was absolutely drenched from head to toe at the end.... I had no idea that I could sweat so much...  but, it was a "gentle"(not too hot) sweat and I was completely invigorated.  I felt and still feel physically and spiritually renewed.

I asked and I received (even if it took twenty years to happen!) and I feel truly blessed to have been a part of such a healing experience yesterday.  

"Man does not weave this web of life.  

He is merely a strand of it.  

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

~ Chief Seattle

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY....

AND THANK YOU 

TO ALL OF YOU FATHERS OUT THERE

WHO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN 

THAT WE MUST LOVE AND TAKE CARE

OF OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET!