Finding another piece of me
Read this:
Chief Tecumseh (Shawnee) vision statement
“Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life.
Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and Bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no living thing, For abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes to your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”
Thanks to http://www.shannonthunderbird.com for this beautiful prayer.
Way back, four generations or so, a piece of me is Native American. It has always clung to me, somewhere, calling to me throughout my history. There is a connection — always has been. There is beauty and peace there that I have found few other places. There is truth, unstructured and untainted by religious pre-conceptions and organizational constraints.
Wrongs? Sure. Evil? Just like in Christianity, or Islam or any other. But God walked with the first peoples in creation — just like he did with Adam and Eve. I think it is the part of my soul so connected with the out-of-doors. I’m learning more — intentionally, for the first time in my life. Before, things of the first people have found me. Now, I am looking for them.
I leave this post here, with something else from the same website:
May all who enter rest in peace and safety beneath my wings.
May all who leave, take with them wings of comfort
(Tsimshian Prayer)
I think this post is your best ever. Not that your writing is bad but honestly this is the most inspiring for me personally. To me this post isn’t about death but more about the celebration of life and what you do with the one you’re given. People who are afraid of dying are in denial, it’s the fear of living that’s really holding them back.
Thanks! I’m not surprised you feel this way, my friend
And you’re right — it’s all about how we live … which is really what any “statement” about faith should be.