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. 

IN our Prayers, Thoughts Come!

2011 South Africa

This is my family. The family that is trying to be resilient. On this pic we had no worries, we were all well.

I am trying my best to keep us from unraveling, but it is difficult. At times I don't know what to do... my husband their father is battling all the complications from the stroke. None of us are used to navigating life without Reggie being in the center imparting his wisdom.

What we are experiencing we could have never prepared for. Each day I rise I look for the good, the light in the dim situation. I try to make sense of everything.

I can't run away. This is my reality." - Gervel Jones-Sampson 

... You can't.

I have been following the story of a man and his wife, Gervel Jones-Sampson, for a little while, as the husband struggles with a major health crisis. His wife is telling the story and her telling is told different because she is wife and mother caring for her heart as she cares for the body and heart of her husband wrestling within his mortality, their children in the struggles of being adult children, the next generation. There is a condition, a unique awareness Creatress placed within wives to be Sacred women. It is evidenced in the way wives love their men in hard situations. Assembled with respect for the changing terrain of loving her husband this type of wife understands the complexity of love. Encircled by the challenge to loving a husband is the glyph, the Tree of Life.

Losing my parents over the slow pace of the years between first Mommy and then Daddy leaving this life in pain, lent eyes to me I did not have, and a storytelling I didn't have the capacity for previously. 

I told Gervel these words:

"I pain thinking of your family story this present date. There are similarities to my family story. As encouragement, the changes each day brings, in retrospect, may reveal core relationships between events from the family's distant past and recent past that prepared the family unit for this trail. It is an odd comfort how our lives prepare us, and distance us at the same time. Either view links us to our ancestral lines bridging us to the long ago, and the long away. It is why we live and we live deep in the engagement that brought us here.

None of us (my brothers and sister) fathomed how we were made ready for our parent's illnesses. It began when they began caring for us as babes, and children. We paid attention and learned how to care for them. Mirrors. The mirrors before us and them reflected the light playing with the shadows playing along the paths of our living. . .

My prayers and appreciation for your bewilderment, your love for each other and the bonds being strengthened linking with all Life pulling your family together!"

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

January 18, 2018

Old Way Medicine

Cree Elder talks about how the natives used the powerful Cedar to cure diseases



Aboriginal Students Health Sciences (ASHS) Elder in Residence Bertha Skye talks about various Indigenous medicines and cultural practices. This episode looks at the power of Cedar.

Cedar was the first tree in Creation and one of the most powerful medicines. Any user of alternative medicine is acquainted with the healing properties of the cedar tree. The tea of the twigs and branches is simmered until the water in the pot begins to turn brown. It is then used for fevers, rheumatic complaints, chest colds and flu.

Among Native people it is considered a sacred tree and they will not perform a ceremony without it. Like sage and sweetgrass, cedar is used to purify the home. It also has many restorative medicinal uses – cedar baths are healing; cedar is used for colds and other illnesses. Cedar is used in fasting and sweat lodge ceremonies as a form of protection: cedar branches cover the floor of the sweat lodge, and a circle of cedar surrounds the faster's lodge.

Cedar Tea and Cedar Baths are excellent for reducing turmoil as it is physically cleansing and brings a fresh air to the sufferer which lessens the resistance to needed change. Its application as a prophylactic is especially recommended to people subject to serious physical and mental stress (e.g., soldiers, athletes, students and managers) – not to mention smokers – thanks to the accelerated formation of free radicals in their bodies. It is fully and totally effective in the healing of ailments related to the musculoskeletal system (in pre– and post–operational conditions), skin disorders, the locomotor apparatus, respiratory disorders, as well as the digestive and cardial systems.

Cedar can be applied externally for extreme pain in muscles using the oil mixture warmed. Do not warm any herbal salves or infused oils in the microwave.


White Wolf