Tuesday, February 10, 2009
On Eldership...
This past year's lesson: I am an elder.
This has been a difficult lesson to learn in a youth-obsessed culture.
"What kind of ancestor are you going to be?"
When I was asked this question a few years ago, it struck a deep chord that began another journey: a reckoning with eldership.
When younger people started calling me Auntie, Tita, mentor --
Something shifted inside.
Yes, I am an elder.
When I was drawn to a book on women's sacred circles and then made plans to form one,
it felt right.
I am drawn to the wisdom of native grandmothers.
I no longer wonder why their language is simple and metaphorical and powerful.
After the words, come wisdom.
As a native elder once said: If I have to tell you what to do, then I have not been a good leader.
Lately, I have been feeling the need to work with a different language.
The language comes to me in dream images and through sensations in the body.
It pulls me away from the mind's preoccupation with abstractions.
This past year's lesson: I am an elder.
This has been a difficult lesson to learn in a youth-obsessed culture.
"What kind of ancestor are you going to be?"
When I was asked this question a few years ago, it struck a deep chord that began another journey: a reckoning with eldership.
When younger people started calling me Auntie, Tita, mentor --
Something shifted inside.
Yes, I am an elder.
When I was drawn to a book on women's sacred circles and then made plans to form one,
it felt right.
I am drawn to the wisdom of native grandmothers.
I no longer wonder why their language is simple and metaphorical and powerful.
After the words, come wisdom.
As a native elder once said: If I have to tell you what to do, then I have not been a good leader.
Lately, I have been feeling the need to work with a different language.
The language comes to me in dream images and through sensations in the body.
It pulls me away from the mind's preoccupation with abstractions.
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