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. 

State of a Truths

Exquisite beauty of Mitzi. 

"When you see the beautiful woman you hear the beautiful music her image brings to the fruit of one's spirit, to light. In song is beauty heralded, in poetry is love borne into the masculine weight of measuring and judging how fine a woman is, how beautiful a moment she creates in the light of discovering her 'who', her 'why' and 'how' her spirit fills in time. It is a wonderful thing being held in the times of wonderment. There can be, and are many in life. For many reasons they come and for many reasons we accept them as compositions we read and sing from in harmonies or discord..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/21/18 

Elegant, fine lines smooth to the touch, you imagine. But, she is flirting. She is teasing with this one movement! She don't need nothing in that purse! To the young man: every move needs interpretation... - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories, 4/21/18 

Ya' Hear Jimi?

JIMI HENDRIX

In the depth of his genius and originality the gem of his words, "When the power of love is greater than the love of power the world will know peace." came forth like the hot waters of geysers in the lands the Americans stole from the Nez Perce, the Absaroka and others to establish the worlds' first national park: Yellowstone.

Jimi Hendrix being a Black Indian meant a great deal to Native people who knew this and to Black Indians who understood the danger of being or admitting to being a mixed breed in those days... It took great commitment to his art to free himself as the musical conduit, and others in the 1960's collective struggles to change lives, and to change the world as they knew it. Jimi Hendrix represents many things. In 2012 he is strange because the concept of freedom he lived and embodied then does not live in the current phenomenon of today's dictatorial patriotism stilted in an idea of freedom in the narrow spheres of one class of people. – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/23/12 

Symbols worn by Sher Nero-Mejia. 

That'sRight!

The right woman is the dream a husband comes home to see himself reflected. Men come home to themselves with the right woman in their hearts. It isn't a secret, it is secret from... - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 10/26/17 

The ties that bind

Durante um tempo fiquei observando esse animal no cemitério, era impressionante, mas ele mantinha uma mesma postura e nunca se movia do lugar ao lado desse túmulo. Depois de uns 15 minutos ele saiu de cabeça baixa.
Então resolvi perguntar ao segurança do cemitério porque deixaste um cavalo entrar nesse local?
Para a minha surpresa, ele falou que depois que o dono dele morreu toda tarde ele estava choramigando no portão para entrá-lo. Dizem que esse cavalo era tão amigo desse homem que não poderia viver sem ele, pois foi a pessoa que salvou sua vida, sua mãe morreu de parto e ele foi criado como filho pelo seu dono. Por isso, todos os dias ele está aqui para agradecer-lo.

Moral: Nunca se esqueça daquele amigo que te deu a mão quando vc não tinha mais forças para continuar. 

Horse in the grave yard.

For a while I was watching this animal in the cemetery, it was impressive, but he kept the same posture and never moved from the place next to that tomb. After about 15 minutes he came out of his head.

So I decided to ask the cemetery security because you let a horse into this place?

To my surprise, he said that after his owner died every afternoon he was choramigando at the gate to accessed him. They say that this horse was such a friend of this man who could not live without him, for it was the person who saved his life, his mother died of childbirth and he was raised as a son by his owner. So every day he's here to thank you.

Moral: never forget that friend who gave you your hand when you had no more strength to continue. - Dr. Frases  

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