By Sheila Totten
So many people shift blame for their shortcomings to others that we are always passing the proverbial buck rather than saying.I messed up.I dropped the ball.Taking responsibility for our actions or inactions should be an everyday part of life but to so many its a "Not me.I would never do that." type of thing.Well,I want to praise my editor at Tanasi Journal,Val Ohle because her is a woman who can face all of us and say "I really messed up."Val is not afraid to face facts and when she dropped the ball for setting up the Day of Healing she did not pass the buck.She came right out and said "I did it." The following paragraphs contain the letter she sent to all.I also aplaud her for her ideas.She has hit the nail on the head for healing needs to start within each and every one of us.We need to first forgive ourselves for our own shortcomings be they temper tantrums,laziness or other bad habits.Then we need to forgive those who touch our lives friends and enemies,all our relations .From there we can go on and forgive those who historically trespassed against us.If we let go of the negative energy we feel when we think of Columbus Day or Little Big Horn,Custer,Sherman,etc. and replace that with positive energy the world around us becomes a better place.And just maybe we will see unity and peace. Please read Val's letter and take to heart her ideas.Lets make Monday a true Day of Healing.
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Last March, I asked the Tennessee Commission on Indian Affairs to establish an annual community-wide Day of Healing. It was a grand plan, really. In my head, I saw people gathering across the state to shed themselves of frustrations, fears, animosities, angst, resentments … all those things that keep us divided as a community … in some symbolic gesture.
The commission supported the idea. It was recommended the Day of Healing be set for Columbus Day, also a grand idea. What better day to begin a process of healing ourselves than a day that has inadvertantly caused us so much pain for hundreds of years?
A committee was appointed consisting of me and Ms. Van Lynch, and to which was to be added traditional spiritual elders. Those elders we were aware of were contacted and agreeable to the idea. After that the ball got dropped. Ms. Van didn’t drop it and the elders didn’t drop it.
I did. I let the roadblocks that put themselves in front of me prevent me from moving the project forward. I let political issues absorb my concentration and time. I let everyday life get in the way. I let personal economics stop me.
Key words being “I let.”
It’s easy to make excuses for not feeding the Spirit, not staying centered on Spirit, not putting Spirit first. It happens in all faiths, all spiritualities. Sadly, it happens to the majority of the people. It’s even easy to be faithful in keeping spiritual traditions, but not keep those traditions in a good way.
If someone were to say to me, “Well that never happens to me,” I’d probably tell them they were liars. I’m relatively sure my elders would.
At any rate, “I let” this project fall by the wayside. It would be difficult now, at best, to put together a plan, distribute it out to the public who would then be faced with trying to organize something, inform their local communities and make it happen. To do so would be foisting my mistake onto others. I’m not going to do that.
So here is the 2007 Day of Healing plan:
Since “I” (meaning self, individual) is the one most responsible for “letting” Spirit be pushed aside, the focus of this year’s Day of Healing is “I.” We need to individually heal ourselves before we can ever hope to heal an entire community.
Wherever you are on Columbus Day morning (October 8, 2007), take a moment of time to speak to that highest power you accept as the Creator/Spirit. If you offer, offer. If you send smoke, send smoke. If you kneel, kneel. Whatever your daily ceremony is or should be, make it be, do it.
- Give thanks for a new day and a new opportunity.
- Give thanks for the blessings you’ve received and recognized.
- Give special thanks for the blessings you’ve received and not recognized.
- Give thanks for your elders, family, friends and community.
- Ask that the day become the first Day of Healing for you, personally.
- Ask Creator for spiritual strength, guidance, forgiveness and humility.
- Ask that Creator help you find a way to let go of those things that allow you to “let yourself” put the Creator/Spirit on a side or back burner.
- Ask that Creator help you find a way to let go of any anger, animosity, resentment or jealousy you may feel toward others.
- Ask that Creator help you understand and be tolerant of others.
- Ask that - when you are faced with opposition - you are guided to face that opposition in an honorable and forthright manner.
- And ask that, the next time you meet or interact or even hear about someone you consider to be an enemy or the opposition, you are given the strength and guidance to try to understand their perspective, to form your words, actions or reactions toward them in a good way and become an example for the Seventh Generation.
And if you’re in need of that symbolic gesture, write down the names of all your enemies, all those you feel have done you wrong, all the “things” that you feel are harming you or holding you back. Take the list you make, read it one time, then wad it up and throw it in the nearest trash can. Stop carrying the burden of all that negative energy right there at the other side of that mental river (to paraphrase Tom’s story of the woman and the two monks). Look at the Day of Healing as a new day, a new opportunity, a new way of being.
I apologize to those traditional spiritual elders I had contacted who agreed to help us plan this year’s Day of Healing. The blame, the failure to follow through is mine and mine alone.
I won’t promise the Day of Healing 2008 will be any closer to that “grand idea” I originally had. It wouldn’t matter if I did. The Day of Healing only does its job if “I” … and you, and you, and you over there … if “we” let it.
Respectfully,
Valerie
PS - please feel free to forward to other lists, message boards, and individuals in the Tennessee Indian community who may not subscribe or view same.
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