a TRIBUTE

Gregory E. Woods in the Empowerment Center circle

When my children were born one of the difficulties adjusting to fatherhood was the sense of anonymity and invisibility and worthlessness. At the time, and in particular the first time, I was overwhelmed being regulated to a sense of worthlessness by the constant adulation Renee received. It wasn't jealousy. I questioned myself about it. It was the lack of attention fathers received from the moment the pregnancy was announced. It built over time. The baby showers, the phone calls. They all served the esteem of the mother, and the fears and concerns I had were whispered into my pillow. No one wanted to hear those words. It felt like the assumptions women, in particular, made about the capabilities of the husband were supposed to suffice. It didn't and it still doesn't. 

I was a young man then, and over the years I learned many things that allow me to share. I felt in my young fatherhood often alone waking up in terror each day wondering if everything was going to come crashing down this day or the next. It was an adjustment leaving the covering of my father's house to establish my own. My heart goes out to young men who did not grow up under the covering of their fathers. The covering of a Father, of a Man comes from the "Priestcraft of Fatherhood", and the Sacred Teachings of Manhood. The teachings are fundamental to Family although scorned out of ignorance, and not taught to the spirit of young men because comparatively few are aware and skilled enough to teach it to their sons by example.

By the time Evelyn gave birth to my youngest son, Andrew I was deeply immersed in the practice, and the months of his carrying time gave me tremendous gifts and insights that highlighted some of the mysterious forces of a man who is a son. They are gifts now to all the men who read my words, or who share physical space with me. Life is a gift, and giving is a gift. The Medicines come and they go from one body to the next. The Medicines birth so much into the recipient's heart it should overwhelm any sense of worthlessness that dares to creep in and undermine the partnership of the birth process, and the experience of learning from the Ancients and ones Elders about being a Father, a Man, a better son, and brother. This is one of the main reasons I write as I do.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories