Walking Spirit in a Native Way

One of the strengths in writing is being a good observer. Over time I have learned what many already know. Just be there! At one point in my life, I was going through a transition and visited a town in southwest Colorado. I went there to get away from my surroundings and try to make some sense out of my life. It was a painful time! Visiting that town, Durango, became an almost weekly trek for me to just get away and regroup my thoughts for a new direction. Though my life had been reasonably successful in family and business, it was not what I wanted, and my hope was to realize a new direction.  A new lease on life, so to speak. I would check in one of the older hotels in town and then visit different places around the area. Sometimes I would sit in a local restaurant in the Strater Hotel or one of the many coffee shops in town. I did not know anyone in the town but gradually, over the weeks, some of the locals befriended me. I would sit and listen to there stories to...

  TRUTH   Understand all that is of those things that you use.   Truth is the completeness of understanding of what is.   Know that all that can be truth is not for man to understand. The layers of truth are like that of  the layers of an onion and beyond. Each layer leaves a new truth to be understood.   Only Creator can know the all of what is!   Be true to yourself and true to your fellow man. Always speak the truth as best that you know.         MII SHII KEN'H - Totem animal for truth   James Beard aka Noodin                Cultural Storyteller, Educator, Speaker,                Author ...

  A night with Mona Walking the Grand Monadnock photograph by Cindy L Baldwin It’s a midnight full moon. Beautiful! What a night to walk in the woods. Quiet, peaceful! Nothing moving and the light of the moon gently lighting the way across the trails to guide the way. Mona is happy walking in the night. She knows we are alone and helping one another. Her energy, so powerful in this time as she shares in the wonders of all that is with her mother. Who can know what they are saying. It is just a time of peaceful bliss to walk in the woods with my special friend. Thank you Mona James Beard aka Noodin, Cultural Storyteller, Educator, Speaker,  Author ...

  Alone with spirit in the now   Tonight I took a walk on the mountain. No one else here. Just me and the wind. Ten degrees and the wind blowing at twenty to thirty miles per hour. Carefully stepping from rock to rock on an icy trail. Beautiful to hear the music wind plays as it comes down the mountain. Alone with spirit in the now. I feel the warmth of my friends and family knowing that they are in the now too. James Beard aka Noodin                Cultural Storyteller, Educator, Speaker,                Author ...

Elder Wisdom! A teaching given to me by Ojibwe Elder Larry Matrious First: Draw a circle on paper. Second: put a dot in the center of the circle. Third: put a mark at the top of the circle. You can indicate that mark to represent North. Then put a mark on each side of the circle and the bottom. Mark those as East, South and West. T he circle represents balance and the dot in the center represents you. Now write in next to the East, Emotion. Next to the South, Physical. Next to the West, Spiritual. Next to the North, Mental. These are the four parts of your being. The dot in the center can move in the circle depending on what is pulling you. Your task is to keep the dot stable and in the center. Everything in the circle is about you and ONLY you. Everything outside the circle is material things around you. Clothes, cars, home, people, work, food and all that surrounds you. Now. How does it work. You walk into a room and you see a beautiful flower. It calls to you and your first reacti...

When I was a boy, about five years old, I told my sister, Tinker, I wanted to learn to swim. We were at a beach, at Godfrey's Pond. It was a local swimming pond  near our home in LeRoy New York. Tinker was laying on a blanket on the beach reading a book at the time. Dad and Mom were getting a picnic lunch ready. My brother was up the beach at a deep water end of the pond with his friends. Tinker didn't say anything and got up. She waived to me to follow her and said, "Come on!" We waded into the water until I was up to my neck. I stood there waiting for her to tell me what to do. Tinker didn't say anything. She simply put her hand on my head and pushed me down under the water and held me down. I struggled but she would not let loose. Finally I went down deeper and out from under her reach. When I came up a few feet away I started to cry and yelled at her. "Why did you do that!" . She simply turned and started walking back to the beach. As she walked away...