I recommend biting off more than you can chew
I recommend sticking your foot in your mouth
wear it out the way a three-year-old would do
melt it down (you're gonna have to eventually anyway)
the firetrucks are coming up around the bend

you grieve you learn
you choke you learn
you laugh you learn
you choose you learn
you pray you learn
you ask you learn
you live you learn

what are you hungry for?

The Blanket of Hope is not just a picture on a page. It actually exists, and was woven by a weaver in the Big Mountain area of the southwest. The Blanket is owned by an elder who wishes to remain anonymous at this time, although she has asked that this prophecy be offered freely to the world as a gift. You are invited to pass on this website information to others. If you choose to copy the text, please understand that this information is not just story, to be retold as the sender sees fit in the moment. These traditions are oral, and the messages are meant to be memorized, and passed on word for word. To change them to your own liking would be like editing the poetry of Rumi or any holy book, just to suit yourself. Even if you meant well, you would have dishonored the originators, the ancestors. So we ask that you respect the words of this message: If you feel touched by it and want to pass it on to others, please send it word for word.

The End of the World
Lakota story told by Jenny Leading Cloud (White River, Rosebud reservation, SD) to Richard Erdoes in 1967. Typed from Erdoes and Ortiz, American Indian Myths and Legends

Somewhere at a place where the prairie and the Maka Sicha, the Badlands, meet, there is a hidden cave. Not for a long, long time has anyone been able to find it. Even now, with so many highways, cars and tourists, no one has discovered this cave. In it lives a woman so old that her face looks like a shriveled-up walnut. She is dressed in rawhide, the way people used to before the white man came. She has been sitting there for a thousand years or more, working on a blanket strip for her buffalo robe. She is making the strip out of dyed porcupine quills, the way ancestors did before the white traders brought glass beads to this turtle continent. Resting beside her, licking his paws, watching her all the time is Shunka Sapa, a huge black dog. His eyes never wander from the old woman, whose teeth are worn flat, worn down to little stumps, she has used them to flatten so many porcupine quills. A few steps from where the old woman sits working on her blanket strip, a huge fire is kept going. She lit this fire a thousand or more years ago and has kept it alive ever since. Over the fire hangs a big earthen pot, the kind some Indian peoples used to make before the white man came with his kettles of iron. Inside the pot, wojapi is boiling and bubbling. Wojapi is berry soup, good and sweet and red. That soup has been boiling in the pot for a long time, ever since the fire was lit.

Every now and then the old woman gets up to stir the wojapi in the huge earthen pot. She is so old and feeble that it takes a while to get up and hobble over to the fire. The moment her back is turned, Shunka Sapa, the huge black dog starts pulling the porcupine quills out of her blanket strip. This way she never makes any progress, and her quillwork remains forever unfinished. The Sioux people used to say that if the old woman ever finishes her blanket strip, then at the very moment that she threads the last porcupine quill to complete the design, the world will come to an end.

Guide them well... for someday you will follow them.

Gathering and Using Medicinal Herbs in the Cherokee Tradition
The Cherokee have been gifted by the Creator with an understanding of the gathering, use and preservation of medicinal herbs. The Cherokee believe that these plants were put on this earth to provide not only healing methods, but preventative measures, as well.

Many plants have disappeared throughout the years, or have become extremely scarce. Because of this, we recommend extreme care in gathering wild herbs and other plants. The old ones taught that when you gather, only pick or dig every third plant you find. This will ensure that enough specimens remain to continue propagation. Many traditionalists carry on the practice of asking the plant’s permission to be gathered, and leave a small gift of thanks. This can be a small bead or other such item. It is also recommended by Cherokee traditionalists that should you find a wild crop of useful herbs, do not share it’s location unless it is to a person very close to you. This will ensure that large numbers of people do not clean out an entire wild crop in a short time.

Additional information regarding the gathering, usage and application of medicinal herbs can be found by talking to the elders of a Cherokee family. Many of these people will still recall some of the home remedies that their families used, as well as provide information on herbs which they themselves use.

Please remember that these plants are very valuable as medicines because of the great chemical powers they contain. At the same time, these chemicals can be potentially dangerous if used in the wrong way. Cherokee herbalists have great experience, and have gone through extensive training and observation. Novice herbal practitioners are advised to seek out and develop a close relationship with Cherokee herbalists or their elders to learn how to use these medicines properly.

Haudenosaunee Teaching
Before the men could go to war, it was customary for the women to make the moccasins. If the women did not want war, they did not make moccasins.

Often we, as Native Peoples here on Turtle Island, are asked "Why are Indians the first to volunteer to go to war? Why would you fight for a country that took your land away from you?" Here is the answer... we fight to protect the Land, we fight to protect the People, we fight because what else would we do as good relations? It is our honor. It is our responsiblity.

With few exceptions, in most tribes, inheritance and descendants came through the matrilineal line. Recognition of the matriarch as an integral part of tribal life gave women a powerful voice in the decision-making processes of day-to-day life. Women made an enormous contribution to the health, welfare and economies of tribal communities and in most cases were responsible for the day-to-day operation of tribal communities. They looked after the the children, the Old Ones, food preparation, planting, shelter, clothing, and on and on...

The moon has a great effect on your daily life. It is a beautiful and powerful force that affects all life on earth. Remember that the influences listed above will themselves be influenced by the cycle of phases and the other lunar, solar, and earth forces, and, to a much lesser extent, by the motion of the planets and stars. Everything is connected in a universal dance of enormous complexity, beauty, and harmony.

Learning about the forces of nature, their influences, and their relationships will allow you to see beyond the limitations of logic and science and look into the realm of awareness.

Below is a wonderful poem. Audrey Hepburn wrote it when she was asked to share her "beauty tips." It was read at her funeral years later.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others. If you share this with another woman something really nice will happen… you will boost another woman's self esteem, and she will know that you care about her.

Mechi Teaching the Lodge the Healing Art of Kolaimni

Even though we're in a new century, many girls are still hoping and dreaming that when they grow up, their "prince" will emerge and take care of them financially (and in other ways). However, for most women this is not likely to happen, or, if it does, it won't last a lifetime. Your girl mentee may not initially “get“ Virginia Woolf's “A woman must have money and a room of her own," or Katharine Hepburn's “As one goes through life one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.” But she may store these reality checks for future examination, ultimately embracing them at a key moment in her development.

If you plant the right seeds, they could very well someday sprout. The wisdom you offer girls now could prove transformational for them as they move into young adulthood and beyond.

Motherhood

Motherhood is about finding the rest of your life inside of you, and giving it to someone else.

WOMEN AND WOLVES -

A healthy woman is much like a wolf, strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, intuitive and loyal. Yet separation from her wildish nature causes a woman to become meager, anxious, and fearful. The wild nature carries the medicine for all things. She carries stories, dreams, words and songs. She carries everything a woman needs to be and know. She is the essence of the female soul...

With the wild nature as ally and teacher, we see not through two eyes only, but through the many eyes of intuition. With intuition we are like the starry night, we gaze at the world through a thousand eyes. It does not mean to lose one's primary socializations. It means quite the opposite. The wild nature has a vast integrity to it. It means to establish territory, to find one's pack, to be in one's body with certainty and pride, to speak and act in one's behalf, to be aware, to draw on the innate feminine powers of intuition, to find what one belongs to, to rise with dignity, to proceed as a powerful being who is friendly but never tame.

The Wild Woman is the one who thunders in the face of injustice. She is the one we leave home to look for and the one we come home to. She is the one who keeps a woman going when she thinks she's done for. She is intuition, far-seer, deep listener, and she is loyal heart. She thrives on fresh site and self-integrity. She must strut the old pathways, assert her instinctual knowledge, proudly bear the battle scars of her time, write her secrets on walls, refused to be ashamed, lead the way through and out, be cunning and use her feminine wits.

Where can you find her? She walks in the deserts, cities, woods, oceans, and in the mountain of solitude. She lives in women everywhere; in castles with queens, in the boardrooms, in the penthouse, and on the night bus to Brownsville. She lives in a faraway place that breaks through to our world. She lives in the past and is summoned by us. She is in the present. She is in the future and walks backward in time to find us now. Wild woman whispers the words and the ways to us, and we follow. She has been running and stopping and waiting to see if we are catching up. She has many things to show us. Whether you are possessed of a simple heart or the ambitious, whether you are trying to make it to the top or just make it through tomorrow, the wild nature belongs to you.

Don't be a fool. Go back and stand under that one red flower and walk straight ahead for that last hard mile. Go up and knock on the old weathered door. Climb up to the cave. Crawl through the window of a dream. Sift the desert and see what you find. It is the only work we have to do. Without us, Wild Woman dies. Without Wild Woman, we die. Para Vida, for true life, both must live.

Squeeze Play

Equality

Violence against women does not discriminate. It affects women of all racial backgrounds, ages, and economic situations. One out of four American women report having been raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, live-in partner, or date at some time in their life. In addition, surveys estimate about one million women are stalked each year in the U.S. Violence can take several forms including domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual assault and abuse, rape, incest, dating violence, and elder abuse.

Violence against women is a serious social and public health issue in this nation. It is a leading cause of injury for American women between the ages of 15 and 54. Acts of violence against women have devastating and costly consequences for individuals, families, communities, and society.

The women who have been abused, assaulted, stalked, or raped are not the only ones who are profoundly affected by these crimes. The victim's children, family, and friends also suffer from witnessing the violence or hearing the screams, or seeing the physical and emotional signs of abuse.

Of the more than 300,000 female rapes that occur each year, about half of these rapes are committed by either a friend or an acquaintance. In cases of elder abuse and incest, a family member is typically the abuser.

Too many of these crimes remain unreported. Women who are in an abusive relationship, who have been raped or assaulted, or who are victims of elder abuse often feel too ashamed or afraid to report the incident. About half of all female rapes, attempted or completed, are not reported to the police.

Violence against women in any form is a crime, regardless of who committed the violent act. It is always wrong, whether the abuser is a family member; someone you date; a current or past spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend; an acquaintance; or a stranger. You are not at fault. You did not cause the abuse to occur, and you are not responsible for the violent behavior of someone else.

If you or someone you know has been sexually, physically, or emotionally abused, seek help from other family members and friends or community organizations. Reach out for support or counseling. Talk with a health care provider, especially if you have been physically hurt. Learn how to minimize your risk of becoming a victim of sexual assault or sexual abuse before you find yourself in an uncomfortable or threatening situation.

OH GREAT SPIRIT
Please hear me
Here I sit, in solitude
at the top of the world
Under a field of jewels,
Your warm night breeze
wraps around me,
Touching me with a lover's caress,
Mother Earth lies softly beneath me.
As I look above at your diamond sky,
My spirit longs to break free
And dance among the stars,
And chase the moon on it's lonely journey.
I feel an almost perfect peace and serenity descend upon me.
Yet, there is an empty place in my lonely heart.
My soul mate is missing.
I know that somewhere in your Great Creation
There sits a kindred spirit,
Also with an empty place in his heart.
Please Great Father, hear my plea.
Guide us together so our hearts may fill
And become One.