Stepping Forward

Life can be overwhelming. The Medicine Wheel is a visual and mental tool we can use to help sort it out. It can help us reorganize when we feel lost and set us back on Earth when our heads are in the clouds. Whenever we don’t know where to begin, we can always find East on the Medicine Wheel and start from there.

If we are able to locate everything else; the four directions plus sky and earth, we can start to find where we are physically. If we get in touch with our current attitudes toward enlightenment, hope, our feelings, wisdom, living and home, then we will have key into our own consciousness. If we familiarize ourselves with truth and know who we are, we will have a clearer sense of what direction to take next.

This way can be challenging. Sometimes seeing the truth can be painful, but it is always better than living a lie. If we do not recognize a problem, we will not know what to do to solve it. When we see the truth, even when it hurts, we can begin to fix the problem and start on the road to healing ourselves. When we heal ourselves, we help heal other things with which we are connected. All of us have the potential to be healers - to heal ourselves, to heal others, to heal our world.

We must go beyond where we’ve been before. We must go beyond what we’ve been before. We must not let the past weigh us down, but be like the grass that grows up from under the pavement, and triumphs. Move past obstacles. Let them crumble. Reach for the sunshine. Feel the warmth. Everything has the right to reach it’s full potential and we are part of everything. We each have every right to be the best we can possibly be.

Will others disagree with us? Yes. That is their role in our Wheel: to keep us aware of other perspectives. Is there evil? Yes. Evil is an imbalance. We need to be aware of where evil exists and do our best to balance it out from our side. Will we die some day? Yes, but since we know we are connected with everything else, we’ll know our influence will continue, and we’ll be comforted by the love that goes on and on around the Wheel forever. We have added to the love that was always there, the love that started it all from that nothing at the center of the Medicine Wheel through which everything else emerged, the nothing that is defined by what exists around it. It goes by many names. Sometimes we call it The Great Mystery or The Great Spirit. It is the center, the hub of the wheel, the only part that does not move, the only part that is constant, the thing we all have in common: our connection with one another.

To reach out to the six directions (east, south, west, north, up and down) gets us in touch with everything around us. The seventh direction is Spirit, which also exists within us. When we are aware of all of these things, we are connecting with our world, with reality. Through this way we can be relieved of feeling walled off from the world or being “beside ourselves”. To connect with our world is liberating. We can feel the good energy flowing like healing water in every direction, including from us and to us. We are part of this romping, rollicking, exuberant force. We are one with the joyful power of life. We are capable of everything positive we want to be. We can forgive. We can heal. We can be responsible. We can be strong. We belong.

All we have to do is use our heads. We are each able to see what is right and wrong if we take the time to look and think. When we smudge (or otherwise purify), we make a pact with ourselves to recognize the truth, to really see it, feel it, think it, live it, and walk it. This is our power. It may sound simple, but it is too often ignored, and once ignored, the power is easily lost. With practice it can be collected and useful once more.

It is time to accept knowledge and wisdom as everyday things. We need to learn to think and to reason every day. We cannot let others think for us. Mankind is maturing, now. We have to leave self-centeredness behind. Just as a mature human being who continues to behave like an adolescent looks foolish, mankind cannot afford to be reckless any more. We need to practice the truth and trust ourselves to recognize it.

To purify our selves by smudging or water or music is to prepare to learn. It is not an automatic thing. It does not erase our past mistakes or make us perfect from here on. It is a solemn vow to think things through. If done regularly, it becomes a practice of good thinking, which hopefully leads better habits all the way around. Good habits are good Medicine.

Each of us can make better choices in life when we are in the practice of thinking truthfully. When we simply react to everything we are not thinking and are apt to make poor decisions and mistakes. If we practice thinking balanced thoughts, recognizing the good around us, speaking the truth, loving what is good, accepting what we can do be positive and then doing it, we are primed for living a more fulfilling life.

Since life is a Wheel that is always turning (and knowing this is often half the battle), we can prepare ourselves to be thrown off balance every now and then. Life happens. But if we know how to re-zero the scales, to start over and find balance again, we will recover with strength and grace, and be ready to move forward again.

Do not envy those who chase or claim to own personal power. That sort of power is merely a conceit that easily turns against a person. It is the power that we all share together that is the strongest and most lasting.

We must let go of our negative attitudes, our irritability and our anger. Let the four winds blow them away. When we let go of things that are doing us no good we will be free to focus our productive energies toward our goals.

When I first read about the tradition of the Sun Dance, it disturbed me. It seemed strange and scary that dancers would cut their own skin and go through such physical ordeals to show their dedication. Is that really necessary? I meditated on this, and the answer I got was this: Yes, it is necessary for those who are called to perform it, and those who perform it willingly. It is a show of sacrifice for those inside that Native American circle.

What would those outside that Native American circle be asked to sacrifice? One answer is the comfort of conformity. Medicine Wheel societies tend to have a very good tolerance of many sorts of people. These groups are not particularly threatened by nonconformity- they understand that everyone has a place and a right to be there. Odd people are sometimes even viewed as holy because they help the rest of the group to think outside the box. To such a tolerant society, individualism is seen as healthy.

To many modern western societies however, conformity is the safe route. Some people would rather die than be seen as a misfit, out of the clique. People will go broke just to “keep up with the Joneses”. They will try to blend in. They will follow fashion. They will avoid saying how they really feel for fear of standing out from the crowd. For those of us who have lived in such a society, our Sun Dance may be to sacrifice caring what others will say, and simply live the truth as best we can.

We do not have to play it up, wear feathers in our hair at the grocery store or anything like that. The most nonconformist thing we can possibly do is to just be ourselves and do our best to speak the truth as plainly as possible. Creative people and those who are natural nonconformists may have all ready suffered the stigma of the misfit, and the sacrifice maybe easier for them than those who have always followed the norm.

No matter what our backgrounds may be, we should always try to make others comfortable in our presence and not shun anyone, even to shun them back. If they are open to it, we want them to be able to hear what good Medicine we can offer, because they are part of the Wheel, too. However, we must avoid telling anyone what to think. It is up to each individual to find her/his own path in the way that makes the most sense to her/him.

The grace of knowing we are attempting a good and truthful balance will be our shield against those who give us a hard time.

At the turn of each year we face the start of a new one, but now we are armed with the seed of experience we have gained from the previous cycle. If we are wise, we will take this seed and plant it for the coming year. If we know our directions, we will know where the light will find us, where the sun will warm us, where the harvest will fill us, and where strength can be found to carry us through the darkness. Our seed will reach it’s root down into Earth for nourishment, and then rise up towards the sky to live a new day, a new season, a new life in touch with all that really matters in this world: that we are each part of the all, and that we all matter completely.

The Medicine Wheel way is not some “weird religion”. Many Native Americans would tell you it is not a religion because the seven directions are considered actual parts of the world, not deities. No faith is required, only a willingness for truth. It is not weird because it has been practiced here on Earth for longer than recorded history. It is an old philosophical device that has served people well when observed with honesty and intelligence. There are no gurus or humans to follow behind and no ways to pay your way in. It is free to all who want to join with life and attempt balance on an ever-turning wheel.

One of our greatest challenges as human beings is to let go of anger. The Medicine Wheel can help us with this. Anger is an imbalance that we can solve by understanding that we are not alone but all together and all connected, that we all matter, and that we are all worthy of respect. Together we all have a hand in turning the Wheel. When we turn it in a productive way we create positive momentum.

It is up to each of us to make the changes necessary to repair our world. Each positive adjustment we make in our own lives is important. If we mess up, we can always ask for guidance and then fix the problem. Think. Take time to go outside and live in the now. Love life. Pass along knowledge. Give it away. Don’t hide from life, be part of it, part of the Wheel. Help it turn in a balanced way.

We are coming through a rough period for humankind. The animals and plants, the air and the oceans have suffered, too. Spiritual leaders have tried their best to teach us and we have struggled hard to learn. Some have fasted and/or meditated in the wilderness. No matter what their beliefs, this is what Medicine People would likely describe as going on a Vision Quest. Any mission we make beyond our mundane comforts in search of clearer thinking may be thought of in this way. It is something we have in common worldwide.

We are fast approaching a make-or-break situation. We cannot remain selfish. Mankind must mature now, and understand that for life to go on, we must all give as well as receive. The Wheel is turning as it always has, but we have reached a point where we all need to grow as individuals.

We are at West, at sunset, now. We can no longer afford the conceits of youth, but that’s good. If we grow up and balance the give with the receive, if we give respect as well as expect it, if we do good things as well as accept them, we can all reap and share the harvest together, knowing we’re connected, and caring for one another. We can face the next turn of the Wheel secure in the knowledge that we have found an ultimate wisdom: that life is about giving away to each other freely and happily, giving the gifts of respect, time and help to each other and to our world. Life is not about me, or you, or them. It is about us all, everyone, every thing, everywhere. We are all needed, even those of us who are not full-blooded Indians, to heal our world. There is no time to quibble over racial purity. We are all same race: human.

The most wonderful thing about getting older (as individuals and as People on Earth) is that we have the opportunity to break out of self-centeredness and concentrate on absorbing wisdom. At no other time in our lives are we so in need of philosophy as when we realize that this life is not ours to continue with forever. Immature people may find the thought of death as depressing, but a mature mind can discover in it even more grace and beauty than physical youth once provided so generously.

When we walk openly and proudly into our sunset years we will find that we still have just as much to give to life as ever we did before, only it has changed. Welcome the change! When we release our grip on youth and allow our spiritual beauty to develop we open ourselves to a bountiful harvest that we can share with others. There will be so much knowledge to give that we’ll have to take care not to overload their plates. Some will grab a slice of wisdom and swallow it whole without a thought, but over time it may digest. Others will spit it right out, but the seed may find the soil elsewhere and grow. Some will savor it and share their harvest with us too, and those will be the most joyous times. And best of all, since we never know everything, there is ALWAYS something new to share, and to which we can look forward with happy anticipation.

We are all individuals, but we are all connected. What we each do to balance also lends balance to everything else. We all matter more than we may ever know.

When we prepare ourselves to see, feel and walk the truth, and when we seek our place in the universe and allow ourselves to feel the connection to it, we are with one another even if we seem to be alone. The Earth is there with us. The sky is there with us. And somewhere maybe not too far away is someone else who is connecting with it all, too. We are together. We matter. We are all related. May we all walk forward in a truthful and balanced way.

Thank you for taking this into your consideration. For all the good you are, and all the good you generate, thank you, all my relations.