Cherokee Woman on Autumn-path

[Tea Cake]

LAtely my goals have been to move with greater agility in the inward world as it steps with the rhythm of this great earth---

I share these words as tools to enhance the creativity in our lives
--I honestly feel cding is a powerful expression that can connect and power us in our pursuits...

as with all words---these will take on meaning in different ways to different readers. Let me know what you think if you have time.

I hope you enjoy!





Judy Bluehorse Skelton teaches herbal medicine at conferences in the Southern North West(of Northland).

Her words:

" Fall is a time of slowing - a time for reflecting on the fullness of
days past,

And in the fall, some seeds, the fruits, as they come into full bearing, is the time to gather them.

When the energy starts to move back into the root, if you're gathering energy or medicine, if you're gathering plants for root medicine, you might be digging in late fall, or, some do
that in early spring.

And then we move into fall. We move to the west, to the dusk, or sunset time of day. This is the direction of maturity, the adult.

It's a slowing down. It's a letting go. It's a time when we accept some things will die, whether it's an idea or a belief that we have held, whether it's a dream that we gave birth to in spring or in the spring of our life and has come to full fruition. And sometimes it's hard to let go of those. We get very attached.

We don't want to see it give way. And yet, if we don't give way, then we miss the gift of a new vision, giving birth to something new in the following winter and spring.

If you look at a society like the American society, the mainstream society, you can guess which direction, or which season, as a culture,mainstream society likes to stay in. It's summer! Youth. It's "Let' stay active. Let's stay youthful, let's stay young." Those are all good things.

However! We miss the gift of maturity, we miss the gift of
contemplation, reflection. We miss the gifts of moving into the role of being of service. We miss the gifts of letting go, of releasing, letting
things move on.

And so we kind of get stuck as a society. You can see it in the youth culture. As a country, there's a certain immaturity. We stay caught up in emotional passions. We don't mature into the wise elder. And to mature and grow and become the wise elder means we have to move through
the west, to come to the north and dream again!

And begin all over
again, with fresh vision, fresh inspiration, new knowledge and things to share when spring comes again.

When the leaves fall from the trees, things begin to go underground,slow down, begin to let go. I think fall is the hardest season for the modern culture, the modern society, to move into gracefully because it means letting go of the dreams that were not fulfilled during that summer, letting go of things in our life that may not be working for us
any longer.

It's the time to look within, to reflect and to contemplate where we are and to contemplate our lives, our actions, our inactions.

It's the time when things begin to die. There is a harvest time. The harvest, it's when we reap the things we've sown. When we look and
evaluate the things that we have sown and what we're reaping, it can be hard. It can also be beautiful, but oftentimes it changes us.

And so the fall, with all the beauty of the falling leaves and the
turning of the colors. I think the plant world reminds us that it's our
opportunity to let go. And know that, as some part of us dies, that a new part will be born in the spring. If we're not willing to let some part of us die, old patterns, or old behavior, then we can never fully grow into the potential that we were born with.

And so fall, dusk, sunset, turning to the west, is an important part of
coming into our full maturity.

The Cherokee tradition, we don't become an adult, we don't become full maturity until 51. I think part of that is based on the life span. It used to be 120 - yes, 120. I had an opportunity to hear Deepak Chopra
speak six or seven years ago. And he is East Indian, a doctor living now here in the United States. And he was speaking how his culture said in
your 51st or 52nd year, you become fully mature. And I had never heard
that except from the Cherokee. And he went on to say that the life span
of the ancestors was 130 years, and that one lived one's life and did
the prayers, followed the ceremonies, ate the proper foods, and a life expectancy of 130 was not unusual

Fall is the time of coming into service. It's when, as adults, we've
raised our families and now we look within and decide how we can serve the larger community, how we're going to share our gifts for the second half of our life. So it can be a very exciting time, it can be a very powerful time because other energies start to come up and move, and because we have more experience and knowledge at that age, we're able to
use that powerful energy in a very good way, a conscious way.

We can choose how we're going to share all that we have to give in the best
way we can.

With each breath, with each step, in each moment, may we all create beauty. Osadadu. "


---Here's wishing us all a beautiful and fufilling month of October------------------------------------------Tea Cake

.

[Marda]

OK I guess ... but you're not going to win any points from the Business Establishment ...
~
"NoTime", "Time Management", "Fast Paced", "Multi-Tasking", "CuttingCosts", "ReEngineering", "ProfitTaking", "Wireless", "ThinkGlobal", "ActLocal", "Futures", "TheMarket", "ReStructuring", "ValueEquations", "GoingForward", "Career", "Opportunity", "War", "Democracy", "Image" ...
~

/Marda

[Tea Cake]

Hi Marda!


I think that creative maturity can be applied to buisness too!

( although the shadow of a luxury-based economy may dim the joys of simple kindness a little)

----------Tc

[Jassmine(SO)]

Hi Tea Cake

Thank you for your post It really touched my soul.

*Hugs & Love*

[Marda]

Hi Marda!I think that creative maturity can be applied to buisness too!( although the shadow of a luxury-based economy may dim the joys of simple kindness a little)----------Tc

I do believe you're probably correct in the theoretical sense ... my heart would love to see it so ...
I suppose we'd be looking into the differences between "cookie-cutter" and "designer" business philosophies and methodologies ...
an earlier post in another section on "why MBAs don't make good managers" suggests the road toward the integration of business and humanity is uphill ...
I feel very fortunate to live in an area (north of Seattle) where Mother Nature is still a major player ...
and even here we are under enormous and increasing pressure to sacrifice her gifts for a few short-term percentage points on some foreign multi-national's quarterly report ...
and our rewards ? ... (as Kersten mentioned elsewhere, 22 - 28% interest rates), a BigScreen TV, and a 180 month car lease

Here's to Oktober(fest)

/Marda

[Tea Cake]

Hi Marda!

The integration between humanity and buisness is a very rich relationship to explore.

Economics aside:

The harvest of any cultures imagination is harvested within a generation.

I believe Judy Bluehorse Skelton's thoughts on " to grow is to let go '

are essential for elder-statesmen to influence community in a way that reflects a path of growth and wisdom. To do this they must conciously embody an elder's view of time.

A child might enjoy a wonderful gorge of a strawberry patch.

Their appetite's may be large but their stomachs are small.

an elder may enjoy sharing this feeling of abundance

by leaving some strawberries for
children to find after they have a few.

In some ways it may be fair to say that North American buisness elders have children's appetites and very large adult stomachs.

They keep on picking straight to their mouths---

...their notion of time having never developed past their childhood.

What an amazing richness we could all enjoy in North Amerika if the imaginations of all classes had the time to grow unencumbered by the endless pursuit of consumptive goods...

...the way either the money-rich classes

or the very simple
time rich
life styles enjoy.

The harvest of imagination is essential for the evolution of technology, arts and wisdom

This evolution is the true measure of any generation.

In some eras---where elder-statesmen behave as hungry-children,

creating an environment that favors this sort of human-growth on a large scale may take revolution.

-------------------Mao Tc

[Marda]

More Tea Cake Thank You,
Perhaps Mother Earth is not yet hopelessly ravaged by her disrespectful and unruly offspring

/Marda

[Loretta Ann]

Tea Cake

I will stay out of the connection to business that has been made here, and simply thank you for the words in the post at the beginning of this thread. There is much truth in them.

[Kersten Lee]

Hi Tea Cake,

Thanks for the soothing posts. I have lived in a lot of termoil again lately.
After what my wife has done, letting go has been difficult. I have felt like giving up but can't hit critical mass because of the love my therapist has for my well being and the love all of you have for me. I'm bad but I know I will emerge the otherside eventually. All the tremendous changes in my life this past couple years seemed to make my life tougher. It seems as I get the understanding of how I fit and who I am there comes another challenge to my well being worse than the last. It seems forces out of my control conspire to keep me down. I've been the happiest ever and yet suffered the likes of which I've not had to endure since childhood.

I've treated friends better than I was ever capable. The same is true of my wife and our nieghbors. I have treated myself better than ever and have believed in my goodness. Still I have been assaulted to my very soul. I have treated my mother inlaw like gold and yet I suffer the slings and arrows. I'm kind and honest with my long lost brother and he, an atheist, rejects me, on what grounds? I've suffered more ailments this last year than ever.

I won't turn back, but at times I think I would be better off with my old hate and depression. Somehow it seems like it would be comforting at this juncture.

Don't worry, as I said I am coping. I don't see how to maintain my will to be happy as the ship is going down in a rain of fire. But I am so far.
(Marda, I know. Go see the movie)

It's nice your back, Tea Cake,
Kersten

[Virginia]

Oh Tea Cake am I ever glad you return to us!!!!! Posts like this alter my very being! Yes, the "autumn of our lives" are the times to give back, to extend a helping hand to those less fortunate, to understand, perhaps not everything, but to have our own history to draw on and to share what hopefully will make the "magical mystery tour" easier for our sisters who may be struggling. I am kind of with my sister, Darlene as to incorporating the business aspect, but if individually people would show more compassion toward others..... unfortunately I come across more and more of " hey my paycheck did not bounce so screw you!!" People with empathy and compassion for "the general public" are few and far between and we have to deal with it every day.
Sorry, I do not want to detract from your berautiful post, it was marvelous
Love you,
Virginia

[Tea Cake]

Namaste!

I like her words very much, she makes the future seem exciting---

You might enjoy this link for more ideas through tradition

http://www.wisdomoftheelders.org


---------- Tc

[Marda]

BANG >>> smoke

[Marda]

Namaste!I like her words very much, she makes the future seem exciting---You might enjoy this link for more ideas through tradition http://www.wisdomoftheelders.org ---------- Tc

So I was getting all excited about the future, and went to the Namaste Cafe for some brew ... as you can see, I'm not the only one who smells a WWW.Business.Plan everywhere I go ...
following is my comment upon answering the quiz re: communications from "where,whom,whatever beyond" ...

Higher Communications Poll : Poll Comments
I felt happiness about this site until the wicked promotional popup started vibrating on my screen ... and now I'm not so impressed / Marda 10/06/04 2:31:27 AM MST

So much for ideas through tradition ... I suppose now my Inbox will be clouding up with WWW.Hate.Smoke.Signals

Next time I'm in Vancouver BC I'll have to stop by "Spamley Park" and gaze at the WWW.Tourist.Attractions/Totems
~
I twied to pway nice Tc ... I weawwy, weawwy did

/Marda

[Tea Cake]

hi Marda

Maybe what The rolling Buddah-stones meant by

" ...how white my shirts could be...doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me...

I CAN GIT NO!!!

NO-satisfaction!( a hey hey hey)"

is that it's okay to ignore advertisements---

those elder-voices on that site have an earned perspective that is so valuable to our generation---


no need to feel " LOst in the Supermarket"-


--on the path of reading tradition---------------------------------------T SEE!!!

[Marda]

(I) "See" you've left enough space between your lines for me to hang myself ...
In the Spirit of George Carlin (re mention elsewhere) I think I need some Hippey Dippey
Medicine,
M A A N

/Marda