Our Granddaughter

Erin Elaine fed by her great great grandmother. 

"I wonder aloud about how important it is for generations to connect when grandparents hold the family's newborns. One is coming from the place the oldest is getting ready to go to. It is an old and equal exchange. It is a necessity. The holding of one is the being held by another and in that embrace is the future, the past in the present moment speaking to eternity, the temporal and the magical parts of Life we can only express through touch and knowing!" - Gregory E. Woods,(Dawn Wolf) Keeper of Stories September 11, 2014 

Erin-Elaine with her Grandmother, Talia's mother July 26, 2014. 

Talia's mother is special and powerful in the way she carried Talia from birth to this moment when the privilege of holding her daughter's first born creates the circle started by her ancients with not an end to the possibilities of concentric circles developing around this embrace that holds more of the Life mysteries that keeps hope and possibilities accessible to the joy of being alive, being a mother, being a daughter and a wife to my son, Lemuel." - Gregory E. Woods, July 26, 2014 

Erin Elaine and her great grandfather, my father. 

Happy Birthday, mi Papito!

Lisa Marie Talavera

October 27, 2013 · 

Lisa Marie Talavera her grandfather's 93rd birthday 10.27.13

Love is family. Love is honor. Love is respect. Love is cherishing every moment. Today I had the pleasure of spending the 93rd birthday of my grandfather with him. It is a pure rare moment in life when you are able to stand in awe of someone you know for a life so well lived that it actually inspires. Heres to you papa~ I could never really put into words how much you mean to me... You are the best man I know. Dad 2nd. My boy Jase 3rd. Salut a ti mi Papito!

- Lisa Marie Talavera

October 27, 2013

LEGACY: A Circle of a Story

IN OUR FACES 

Jenny Arzola
October 8, 2012 

   

"A great deal of love and attention is focused in some faces because love and attention was given to them when love and attention was crucial to their well being. Being loved and attended to remains a part of who they are throughout their lives that become privileges by definition, giving by nature, important by design, and connected by what made them loving and attentive to others who need to be loved and attended to when it is crucial. 

Our Grandparents, and parents start these great weaving puzzles in our lives." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.6.14  

11th COMMANDMENT: Reconcile the Victorian magic

Victorian Circus style of

"The Victorian era extended into these times would have been incapable of allowing the full expression of the African Woman in its midst! It couldn't have born her freedom of movement, her intellect, or her spiritual attachment to divinity, or her ability to birth freedom in her children, and her men. The adherents to the spirit of the Victorian era could not have appreciated, loved, admired, or emulated the fluidity of the African woman's body, her loosened hair, nor the outspoken spirits of African women freely moving in contrasting ideologies away from a people addicted to form, and terrified of formlessness.

Terrified of death the adherents to the Victorian principles could not imagine formlessness, or endure imagining it. That is an astonishing fact to consider knowing how the Euro-Americans administered death, and insisted upon conformity to form consistently in their reigns of terror throughout their centuries of power upon the planet.

The best of today's African, and African-American and the others throughout the African Diaspora need to grasp this long enough to look into their children hearts, and into their grandchildren's eyes to see why they should shake themselves free of ideologies and theological teachings foreign to their ideal self, and the core, the essence of who they are to answer their grandchildren's sure-to-come- questions, and recognize their children have the right to examine who we have become in the African Diaspora. Without self-examination hope, and posssibility are doomed, are confined to conforming to forms foreign to their original designs!" - Gregory E. Woods 6.4.13

... such a beautiful woman at such a beautiful time in her life!
Phemy Williams on her 50th birthday. May 27, 2010.

The POSSIBILITIES

Nightcap Clothing

 May 3, 2013

and so ...

"I thought for a moment the look was just for me. It wasn't. It was the hope of being recognized talking to the vanity of wanting to be seen for what I had not become yet."

I remember this state of mind I had as a young man not too many months and later years from under my parent's house. It was a stage I stood upon. How we traverse our stages determines the stage we set for our children and the next generation. 

It is important to remember this as a grandfather. Grandfather is a title for an Elder; a responsibility and a gift to the grandchildren. - Gregory E. Woods 5.8.13

INVESTMENT

"There is so much to say about what we invest into our children." 

Jan. 29, 2014

So much of our hope is in the stages of our work to be better and to make better our children's lives. If we could extend hope and investment concepts beyond and into seven generations the effective powers of our lives will be more potent and far reaching. This child alone on a bus, or train in her regalia is safe when all make a child save from the worst of people, and the worse of themselves. Protecting youth and protecting children are the same and different jobs, and different sates of being. One lives in the other and the other is because of the other. Each needs to be protected and are best protected by those whose youth and innocence were protected during their formative years. Focus on the child within as an older adult is different if protected youth and innocence was the paradigm of their earlier lives. ~ Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 1.30.14 

 Our own Josephine Baker in the early 20th century. 

Raising KIDS, or Children?

posted by Lisa Alton
Sept. 11, 2013

Well said whoever said this. There is a lot in this charge. The questions opposed to change this paradigm are misfits themselves. I wonder as a grandfather looking back how today's parents fare. They,at least in the States, seem to parent with fears that cannot develop a child. Fears dominated each preceding generation, but this generation is mangled by something that may or may not be self induced. I don't know. There is a lot of work for everyone to do. It is not just the parents who raise children!  - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 11.1.13

children at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, ca 1890. This was a hellish experience for them all: the government and the church policy of killing the Indian in the Indian.

LEGACY

True African Art.com
photo by Steve Bloom

"Protect the next generation..." Is this idea applicable to people, or have we in the Western world summoned allegiance to another form of value over human life? This question was raised deep within the collective consciousness in 2001 when those men drove planes into buildings. For the Saudi men it meant one thing to protect their generations, and they were prepared at the deepest levels to succeed. For their targets...? - Gregory E. Woods, 2.25.13

Lioness: fight or play?

BIRTH OF A CHILD, OF A MAN

Remember one of my Grandfathers on dads side sharing about the births if his children. It was in a time when we still determined the circle from birth to the restoration of the Soul. MEN MIDWIFED THEIR OWN CHILDREN. Birth was and remains, something a whole and sacred Man guarded as his shared responsibility and privilege to attend to. 

One of the first births Grandfather described ...it was getting close to the birthing time at their home and he prepared himself as a Tohunga a Medicine Spirit Man. With prayers and propitiation he sat on the floor and bent his knees in front of himself. Grandmother came in the fullness of her contractions and kneeling down in front of him ...THEY EMBRACED EACH OTHER and Grandmother exerting pressure on herself gently eased their child into this world ...so very beautiful and loving ...then it was time to do the rituals for the newborn and give thanks ...my Grandfather had fourteen children and he delivered all of them. This is our preferred way to welcome a child ...by two parents actively present and wholly accepting of each other ...being there in the privilege of bringing a sacred Soul into this realm. - Mereana Taki, 5.28.13


My Grandparents never suffered from identity crises ...they refused any questioning of their sacredness TO BE THEIR TRUTH ...it was unthinkable to talk about culture anything, as such persons were deemed in need of serious Spirit Medicine ...all of the politics of identity and cultural schizophrenia is a by-product of many radical contradictions on every level of humanity ...and in order to; be re-questioned fundamentally. - Mereana Taki

Mereana Taki
May 26, 2013

how have you thought of the children?

Thank you, our children need this validation, and their parents, educators, holy people, and protectors need the reminder, and the understanding of who has been entrusted into their care! ~ DawnWolf KeeperofStories

11.2.12

Black Families, an aspect of

One man chimed in the discussion and said, "Well, what the system didn’t kill most Black women denutted. Buyin’ li’l niggas 3 and 4 pairs of Air Jordans. Now li’l fuckers think they ‘deserve’ dumb ass niggar shoes. I see mothers now won’t let nobody raise a goddamn man. Sorry women, grandmothers, aunts, teachers, all kinds of enablers.”

Another man said, “They keeps sayn, “I don’t need no man.”

“Well. Okay.”

ghetto woman, Passion, messing with her hair

BEYOND

"I have moved to a new place, one which I visited five years ago for two weeks. On arriving this time, I was staying with my daughter in the middle of the city in a hotel until I found a place to live. While in the hotel, I told my daughter that last time I was here, I had found a supermarket in the middle of the city that was underground (and that was why I remembered it). I said I had shopped there and I should be able to find it again, so we walked around the mall until I found an arcade that I though looked familiar and there at the end of the arcade was the entrance escalators that led to the supermarket. We shopped. Today, two weeks later, I was speaking to some new co-workers and one of them mentioned the supermarket under the ground that is also close to where I now work. She told me that the supermarket was new and had only opened a year ago. I asked if there were any other supermarkets here that are underground and was told there is not.

This happens alot to me ... a past event (giving me a future event) that I only discover in the present. I have no probs with it, except - why give me that - a supermarket???? Surely there are more important future events that I need to know ..." - Jill Carlson 9.5.12

a dream within a dream... - from Gracielle Grace Talbot

"Beyond déjà vu is a realm, a sense of being a part of shifting time signatures; of Earths above, below and beyond here.  How one gets there, or why one is invited, and taken there are arranged and answered questions outside of the meager definitions that will satisfy a skeptical public, themselves, afraid of 'smaller'' experiences, like healing a migraine, or pulling slivers of glass from a foot by the words of one's mouth.

I am grateful you trusted so many, and braved doubters to interject your experiences into cyberspace because it is important to let these experiences out for our young people to hear. These stories, and adventures, or episodes strengthen their resolve to continue on the mysterious paths their landing on Earth stirred. In short, they need salvation from the doldrums passing for religious experiences that do not live beyond the past; beyond what happened to historical characters. They need to hear fresh stories that support the vibration levels of their beings because what happens to them happened to you, and they have immature places, and people to share these things with..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9.5.12

MOTHER'S LAND

It takes a breast for a child to know it's mother and it takes a mother for a child to know its father. - Motherland Proverb

Mother making cassava.

Introducing African spirituality into a Christian home is often tantamount to introducing the devil to your daughters. That is a hard thing to say, but it is too common an occurrence.
I lived in Africa when I was younger. Returning to the States and getting married was hard, and became harder when I spoke about deeply exposing my children to specific African spiritual practices. My first wife and the church we attended rose up against me. It was hard. It would have been easier had I been able to take Renee to the places I lived, and gently let her feel the marketplace first, and the country side and the city later.  - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

father and son

This proverb provides a deep insight into the chasm between the powers of mother's and father's perceptions of themselves and their roles.- Gregory E. Woods 

LEARNING A CHILD

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." anon



There is that standard of harshness that finds the deepest satisfaction in crushing children's spirits. It lives in the administrators of many school and church systems, and coarseness, rigidity, and coldness is a prerequisite for their positions. Parents have seen this for decades, and now long past the reverence once held for doctors and educators parents themselves educated, and thoughtful are faced with their children's ability to force change into their lives. Not dark administrators. Change and fluidity are abhorrent elements to them, and at any chance given they will crush a child who dreams and has powers.What do you do about this? What do we do about this?

I suggest we find our collective and individual voices, develop them, and learn to listen to the high frequency vibrations young people have to understand what children need in their lifetime for starters!- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories August 21, 2012

REV. WALTER FAUNTROY

Rev. Walter Fauntroy holding little Yusef Kahlil
photo taken by Lori Anne William

Walter Fauntroy & my father, Herbert L. Woods, worked together in the Civil Rights movement in the DC area. Daddy was the Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) at the time... Rev. Fauntroy, as I knew him, was a helluva a singer. I am sorry. A heck of a singer. Better correct that. No telling you might know my mother.

Any who Rev. Fauntroy had an impact on my upbringing; his presence and the way he carried himself. Do you know Rev. Fauntroy, Rev. Samuel G. Hines, Bishops Smallwood, and McCollough were the four forces that stopped the Federal government from driving Route 395 through the Shaw community in Northwest Washington DC in the 1960's? These men, my father, and many others were powerhouses, and the women in those days. The women, their wives, and mothers, fed, and provided the motivation and means to create change. Those were serious and powerful times to learn the craft of manhood, adulthood, womanhood, and to be a young person being made ready for the future. I call upon them often. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (8/04/12)

BLACK FAMILY VAUES & WAY OF LIFE PART 4

Fourth, and finally, Siksika learning theory posits that the final step towards grasping the meaning and significance of a particular concept or practice is to try to teach it to others. Such would be the case for the Siksika initiate charged with transmitting a particular item of information to other. At this point learners will probably be more mature adults, and will likely be dealing with spiritual subject matter and procedures of a more sacred nature. No doubt they will have stamped indelibly into their hearts the sacredness of what they are about to do and they will be adequately prepared to undertake the task. The slogan, “learning by doing” will have special meaning in this scenario. - Tiger Lilli Sakima
 

Names, among the Blackfoot, are highly esteemed and each family name has a story of its origin behind it. The tradition of name-giving is based on recognizing a special characteristic unique to an individual and then assigning a particular name to him or her. Individuals also have the right to change their names during their lifetime, and individuals might do so based on their unique experiences or accomplishments. When the Europeans arrived some changed their names because the newcomers could not pronounce their traditional names. Many families also took surnames for much the same reason.

Much of Siksika society life emphasizes the process of transfer, the Horn Society being one of several primary vehicles for this kind of activity. Horn elders always transfer teepee designs, family names, or medicine bundles according to strict protocols and philosophies, and in turn further transfers have to be made in exactly the same way that the last transfer was made. Today elders caution their younger relatives to accept any knowledge given by elders either formally or through family socializing moments and continue to pass along those teachings to future generations in order to protect Blackfoot history. Gifts of knowledge come in many forms, so listeners are cautioned to be aware of movements, language, stories, geography and anything related to community history. Once something has been appropriated, the cycle of teaching it to others is expected.

Traditionally, family relatives—uncles, aunties, and even older cousins—freely take part in child discipline and surprisingly to outsiders, this still happens today. In the words of one young one, “There are lots of times when someone is called on to talk to a person about his or her actions. This helps in my life right now as I am comfortable talking to anyone who is doing wrong or being just plain disrespectful. An example of this would be my friend’s son and how he talked to his mother. If things did not go his way he called his mother names. His mother did not want to yell at him or worse, strike him, so she generally put up with his behavior. One day I took him aside and talked to him about this. After a few days I pulled him aside and asked how he felt about the situation. He said he knew I was right and he should not have talked to his mother that way. To this day he is respectful to his mother. This event did not make my relationship with his mother any less friendly; she was actually glad that someone cared enough to talk to her child. I expect this same sort of action from my friends and family when dealing with my children.

All grandmothers traditionally play a very significant role in Siksika culture. One young one recalls growing up in her grandmother’s home and experiencing the deep spirituality the older woman fostered. As a medicine woman, the grandmother awoke early each morning and walked out onto the porch to greet the day. She offered prayers and songs to the Creator, at the same time sending forth in thanksgiving smoke from her pipe as incense. On waking up, her grandchild would quietly make her way onto the porch and silently sit beside her grandmother, trying not to disturb the elder’s time with the Creator "Napi'". The moment comprised a mixture of peace, love, and compassion as the two sat silently together enjoying creation. Today this young woman observes the same daily ritual by rising early, greeting the sun outside her home, and offering early morning prayers and songs to the Creator "Napi'" in her native language.

The custom among Siksika women to grow their hair long. One individual informed us that she had always complied with this custom until her grandmother died. At that point she cut off her hair and placed it in her grandmother’s casket. Among the Blackfoot, this action is viewed as a sacrifice on the part of the woman. Long hair is viewed as a gift from the Creator "Napi'", and if it is discarded in a careless fashion, it is believed that the individual will have bad luck; bad spirits on the other side will take the hair and use it for ghost bullets. It is a scared truth that members of the Buffalo Women Society keep their sheddings when they are in the sacred lodge and place them at the center pole for the next year. They also have a sacred bundle that is part of a ceremony to keep track of gathered hair. However, out of respect, no more will be written about this. Even this brief description is convincing evidence that many oral teachings are being carefully transmitted to succeeding Siksika generations.

Traditional seven sacred societies of the community—Horn, Crow, Black Soldier, Motoki (Buffalo Women), Prairie Chicken, Brave Dog, and Ma’tsiyiiks. Today four of the societies remain, committed to preserving sacred beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies of the Siksika. These are the Horn, Buffalo Women, Brave Dog, and Prairie Chicken societies. The number seven also represents the seven stars of what is now known as the Big Dipper.

"Sharing some things that I have learned"

True of Heart<>Tiger

BLACKFOOT VALUES & WAY OF LIFE part 3

The third step to effective learning is participation or, as the common expression has it, “learning by doing.” Traditionally, elders from many plains tribes insist that children must learn their culture by accessing traditional forms of education on the land. A sense of connectedness to the natural world, as well as to people in it, is developed through extended experiences on the land, either in the company of an elder or alone. When a youth is given the privilege of participating in a specific ceremony it is always under the supervision of a responsible individual. Participating in a sacred ritual or ceremony requires use of all five senses, encompassed in an attitude of spirituality.

This, in Siksika terms, implies adding a sixth sense—spiritual awareness. Participating in a sweat-lodge ceremony, for example, will itself verify the readiness of the participant. If the lodge is entered with negative thoughts, the individual might afterwards experience uneasiness or even illness. If on entering the lodge participants have the right attitude, they will feel spiritually refreshed after participating in the ceremony. ~ Tiger Lilli Sakima

 

BLACKFOOT VALUES & WAY OF LIFE by Tiger Lilli Sakima part 2

building relationship

The second step of the Siksika teaching/learning scenario occurs when an elder considered a youthful listener ready to observe the practice of a certain cultural custom or important sacred ceremony or ritual. When deemed ready, an elder might invite a youth to observe the proceedings. An observer of a Sundance, for example, has to follow a strict protocol and learn to respect the various attending requirements. ~ Tiger Lily Sakima

Wisdom of the Sages/Honoring the Elders

There is a reason that wisdom is associated with age. Traditionally,elders have been the wise men and women of communities. Mostspiritual leaders apprentice for most of their lives before beginning their practice. In many parts of the world, elders are honored andrespected for the wisdom they've gained through life experience.They are considered a valuable source of knowledge and havean important role to fulfill in passing on traditions and customs.In many parts of the world, nursing homes for the elderly are rare.Caring for one's aging parents is considered an honor and a blessing.

In other cultures it's not uncommon for three or four generations to live together under one roof. Immediate families consist of children, parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and sometimes great aunts and uncles.Such intergenerational coexistence is beneficial to allfamily members. There are caregivers for both young children and theelderly. And older relatives can pass down the family history to children and act as role models for younger family members.In Native American culture, elders are appreciated for their closeconnection to nature and the spiritual world. They are known as"wisdomkeepers, " acting as caretakers of the planet. Respected fortheir life experience and wisdom, African elders serve as mediators between deceased ancestors and living family members.Honoring and respecting our elders is a way of building communityand strengthening society. It helps appreciate every stage of life andview aging in a positive light.

After all, hopefully we will all have theopportunity to become sages in our later years.Smile your loved by a Latina Goddess, by RaK