Walking Spirit in a Native Way

An interview with Story Teller James B. Beard. Author of "Walking Sirit in a Native Way ~ White Mocs on the Red Road" Truly unique and insightful! Through the voice of James, also known as Noodin, the author shares his transformative thirty year spiritual journey under the guidance of an elder from the Ojibwe Nation.   Hear his story in his own words  James Beard aka Noodin                Cultural Storyteller, Educator, Speaker,                Author ...

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...

  To be one with self is the goal ! There are no new beginnings!   When we know, then we understand that we know little. When we move we are only traveling in the next of a series of circles that some call the natural order. To be where  we are is only because we have come to that place from another place. The present is the reality that we seek though we often look in every place but the present. To be one with self is the goal and the reward is to be at one with all that is. Noodin   James Beard aka Noodin                Cultural Storyteller, Educator, Speaker,                Author ...

  RESPECT ! The first step to helping others ! ~ M’naa den d’mowin ~ [respect]   Respect everyone, all humans and all things created. Regard each with esteem and consideration.   Allow others to believe in their own reality. Being in the present is only a part of the answer. Understanding one’s own reality and the reality of those around us is the other critical understanding. What one understands and the way that one understands it is what builds a belief system that guides a life. It does not have to be right or wrong. It is the experience and information that makes what one believes work or not for them. So what one believes is their personal understanding. It is their reality and it does not matter whether is true or not. It is what they know to be true. Each of us believes things a little differently than another person. We define our truth based on the input and experience we gain over our time in life. Wha...

Conversation with Woodpecker   Woodpecker Came to Visit!                           By James B. Beard aka Noodin   Most people probably don't talk to animals. Or do they? I guess one turning point from reality is when animals start talking to people. Wasn't that something taken away by Spirit a long time ago because of man's lack of respect for animals? Most Spirit teachings say that. Maybe it is something to be gifted back at some point. I don't know.   I don't know much, and the longer I walk on this Earth it seems, the less I really know. There is a kind of progression in living that leads one to assume that each discovery in life is a contribution to a wider knowledge of all that is. As these discoveries continue, one realizes that the knowledge gained only creates more questions. Wisdom, it seems, is the realization that we really don't know a lot about anything. In th...

  STORY TELLER ~ NOODIN   JAMES BEARD aka Noodin [wind]                                                                     I never would have envisioned myself following Native teachings. Not being Native. I really didn’t understand why I was taking that turn in my life. I was a businessman, successful, family and there was no reason for me to walk away from all of that.  From the Summit - Grand Monadnock As Spirit guided me I came to see that there were answers I was looking for in my life that I wasn’t finding in our modern society. I grew up in the sixties. The fifties and the sixties. I watched the transition of our society of our young people from a people who seemed to be very respectful of their parents and of government and of all th...