Walking Spirit in a Native Way

A man named John By James B Beard Cultural Speaker, Author October 22, 2025    I first met John at a gathering to listen to an Ojibwe Elder speak in Massachusetts back in 1994. He and his wife, Rhona, had been attending with a small group of people to hear the teachings of this Elder and to study those teachings. It was my first time at this gathering. John was a very quiet man and one would ...

  Must be time to get up! Winter in New Hampshire A flash of bright light and I am awake. Another flash and the forest is like day. I walk out of my cabin and feel the gentle moist rain in the fog that is drifting through. Another bright light yet no sound. All is silent in the night excep t the brook as it sings it’s never ending song of life to mother earth nearby. Must be heat lightning I think, and then it comes. A great flash lights up the fogged in forest and shows every tree with the clarity of a drawing outlining every branch. A crash of thunder so close that the ground shakes. I go back into the cabin. It is three thirty in the morning and the rain is now pounding the ground. Must be time to get up! It's funny. When I was young, I thought about being a park ranger or some other outside kind of job. As I grew up life seemed to steer me in another direction. I never thought I would wind up doing something I thought about when I ...

  GIFTS of LIFE Lose Some ~ Gain Some   We never really lose anyone or anything in life for it becomes a part of us. All things continue! We always gain something in life because the person or thing we have cycles into our being at the right time and comes from another cycle.  Be happy in the instant of this time! Your life! Noodin Remembering those who have traveled on. Remembering those that are here. James Beard aka Noodin                Cultural Storyteller, Educator, Speaker,                Author ...

  Are you making a difference? It is not who you were!   It is who you are! Who remembers a star football player thirty years after his game?   Do you remember Rolland Lawrence?   I didn't, until I met him.   Mr. Bay, as he is called affectionately by the kids at VisionQuest Big Lodge Camp, was a 1975 NFC ALL-PRO for the Atlanta Falcons.   Rolland was NFC's 2nd leading interceptor in 1975.   A deadly tackler, he gained over 4,000 yards at Tabor. But this is not about a retired football player.   I want to tell you about an extraordinary human being.   One day recently I was doing a project with VisionQuest Academies in Pennsylvania.   They were short on Child Care Workers and asked Ed, my partner, and myself to help out.   Since we are cleared for Child Care Work with VisionQuest, we were happy to help.   We were asked to monitor classes as we have done many times. Walking down the hall to the c...

 IAN Interview ~ Author James B. Beard aka Noodin Independent Author Network ~ Author Review ( This review has been updated to relate to the updated version and publisher October 12,2025 )   Author Bio: ) James Beard aka Noodin, Cultural Storyteller, Educator, Speaker, Author     Jim Beard is a speaker on topics such as traditional living and natural spirit teachings.  His topics address many concerns to do with wellness and balance in life.  He is a student of native teachings from Ojibwe Elders, Algonquin language based people, living throughout the Great Lakes Region of the US and Canada.  The audiences for his presentations vary from youth to elderly. Please tell us about your latest book: Some things in life happen that one could never foresee. The story you are about to read is about one of those things. Like most people, my life was pretty well laid out for me. Growing up in a small town in western New York, going to school, servi...

  For the sake of a little pleasure ! AN OLD TEACHING Do not be distracted because of little pleasures.   A number of flies were attracted to a jar of honey which had been overturned in a housekeeper’s room, and placing their feet on it, ate greedily. Their feet, however, became so smeared with the honey that they could not use their wings, nor release themselves, and were suffocated. Just as they were expiring, they exclaimed, “O foolish creatures that we are, for the sake of a little pleasure we have destroyed ourselves.”   Pleasure brought with pains, hurts.  Aesop’s Fables written in B.C.   Looking around, I think! ~ Is this what we have all done?  Noodin     James Beard aka Noodin                Cultural Storyteller, Educator, Speaker,                Author ...