Walking Spirit in a Native Way

  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 ...

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...