As I am sitting here writing this article, Blue Spirit is here on my shoulder guiding me. I guess you could say this article is about Infinity and the blinking of an eye. Blue Spirit is talking about life and death and how we fit.

Most indigenous people seem to have a pretty clear understanding of Spirit and how it "walks" in their lives. Most have what seems a childlike acceptance of Spirit and do not question how it is for them, only that it is and that life is within all things. We walk life in that simple understanding. Many individual non-indigenous people in this society do reflect and walk in their own understanding the path of Religion and Spirit. There have been books and books written about the differences between Religion and "Native Spiritism". I could write a book myself but that is not the purpose here.

Partially what I write here, is about that simple acceptance of Spirit and self and about how within that acceptance lies what we indigenous "Americans" call the Great Mystery. Our industrial scientific society mostly understands that if we can touch it, smell it, see it, and know how it works it is real and if it breathes and thinks and moves it is alive. Religions work to bring Spirit and Worship and understanding of the unseen into our lives and to bring humanness into the stark reality of our world, as we know it. I do not separate the "realness" of the world around me from that of Spirit. For me I cannot separate, for a better choice of words, Church and State, for they are all one. I cannot take off my coat of Spirit and hang it up and go to the office.

Science says that we are approaching the very smallest and basic building blocks of all things when we reach the atomic level. What Blue Spirit says to me is that if I were the size of a nucleus of an atom I would see an unseen world as complex and as full as the universe I live in now! And that no matter whether you are going in the direction of bigness or smallness both continue on into the infinity of the Great Mystery!

So, what does this have to do with the blink of an eye or life itself? When I blink my eye I trap microorganisms and germs and the chemistry of my body attacks these and changes them from one form to another. When I walk, my foot steps into a world of complex life and crushes and changes it. Because I cannot stop the blinking of my eye or the walking, what do I do with this knowledge? Most people because they know there is nothing they can do about it, keep on blinking and walking as I do. But I am conscious of the fact that my movement through space affects and pushes space around me. When I choose to take that step I know that I kill thousands of entities and beings, but I do so anyway. I know that out of that destruction there are as many thousands that live off that step and grow because of it. I respect the way of this understanding and because of it I have come to learn to respect and accept the living of my life within the Great Mystery!

Does this understanding give me the right to take life? When I eat a spear of broccoli or a piece of chicken, I have taken a life! If a person's intent were to take my life, I would defend myself! Would I take a life just because it stood in the way of something I wanted? No because this is "walk" of disrespect. Because of my mixed heritage, I have a unique understanding. Some of my ancestors came to this country and wanted it and they took it at great cost to themselves, the indigenous people and the environment. The other part of my ancestors fought for their right to be here and to be the caretakers of this land. Part of me is the aggressor and part is the defender. I will not debate the rightness or wrongness of it, but the acceptance of the fact that it did and is still happening. So do I take life as my ancestors took each others? Yes and No! But I take life every second of every moment. Do I respect life, yes every second of every moment. When you take life without respect, you do not respect your own life; for all life is one and the same whether it be animal, vegetable or mineral and is of equal value. When you disrespect your own life in not accepting, not believing in the wholeness you were born with, you are taking the life you were given by the Great Spirit as much as if you were to taking the life of another.

I come back to the simplicity of acceptance! Spirit is in our lives every second of every moment. When you eat something, cut down a tree being or ingest some herb beings, you are taking their life by either asking them or not. Maybe you, within this understanding will see the wonder of the Great Spirit's gifts and accept your place within it and give thanks!

Aho!

TwoFeathers