Archive

Monthly Archives: June 2012

The film classic “Psycho” and the value of clearing the clutter

Ever wonder how the classic Hitchcock thriller “Psycho” is related to clearing the clutter? Probably not, so read on.

If your nerves were on edge while watching “Psycho,” here’s why: every time director Alfred Hitchcock cut to the house on the hill, something was different.

In each shot he would change the location of the door, or the number or placement of windows, or the number of panes in each window.

The shots weren’t held long enough for the viewer to be conscious of what the changes were, only that something was “wrong” with that house. The result? An uneasy feeling throughout the film. That’s why Hitchcock was such a master director.

Continue reading

1

Adventures in Feng Shui

Feng shui is the ancient art of balancing energies in a space to bring health and good fortune for the inhabitants. Just as we want and need a healthy, balanced body, we need and should want a balanced living environment. This is what Feng Shui provides.

Developed in China over 3,000 years ago, today it is known and practiced throughout the world. It deals with placement of a building on land, location of doors, windows and rooms and objects within the rooms.

I am a believer because I study and teach about energy so feng shui makes perfect sense to me.

Continue reading

4

Father’s Day and the Native American tradition of adoption

On Father’s Day I remember how very blessed I am to have had three fathers, all at the same time. This was not a product of divorce. It was the product of the beautiful Native American tradition of adoption.

Read on to learn about my three dads: my birth father and Native American elders Wallace Black Elk and Marcellus “Bear Heart” Williams.

Continue reading

2

What to do when bad things happen

More wisdom from Bear Heart in the Wind Is My Mother on what to do when bad things happen in our lives:

Not long ago a woman called me and I went to see her in the hospital. She was a very young mother who had just given birth to a child with no arms. He had webbed feet and scars on his face and she was wondering, “Why me? Why me?”

I had to talk to her a long time, pray with her, to show her that there was a blessing somewhere in her situation.

In our culture, when such children are born we say they are specially blessed. The Creator had a reason for bringing that child into the world and we are helping the Creator when we make the child as comfortable as possible in every way.

It’s said there is a special blessing when we help someone like that, although that’s not our reason for doing it. My people don’t even talk about the reasons, we just try to help.

I told her the story of a similar situation where a little boy was born without arms and the doctors asked her husband to stay by his wife’s bedside as she came out of sedation so he could tell her.

Continue reading

Journey to emotional healing

I hope that the healed life is the goal of each of us: to work toward emotional healing, physical health and spiritual fulfillment.

Emotional healing includes learning what didn’t work and to no longer repeat our past, self-defeating patterns.

This lovely piece by Portia Nelson sums it up nicely.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE CHAPTERS

(1)

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I fall in.

I am lost . . . I am hopeless.

It isn’t my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

Continue reading

Do you walk your talk?

In the following excerpt from The Wind Is My Mother, Bear Heart instructs on how to walk your talk:

“Nokus Ele’, or Bear Paw, the Seminole elder who put me on the ant hill as part of my training, was a medicine man.

“A member of our tribe wanted to learn something from Bear Paw and extended an invitation to him, saying, ‘I want you to stay overnight at my home.’

“So Bear Paw spent all night at this man’s house then got up early in the morning and waited until his host finally got up, too.

“The man said to him, ‘Breakfast is ready now, why don’t you come and eat.’

“In my tribe, people usually talk after the meal so when they had finished eating, the host said, ‘I’d like for you to tell me anything you think I ought to know.’

Continue reading

1

How to take charge of your life

The Creator gathered all of creation together and said, “I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they create their own reality.”

The eagle said, “Give it to me, I will take it to the moon.” The Creator said, “No. One day they will go to there and find it.”

The salmon said, “I will hide it in the bottom of the ocean.” “No. They will go there, too.”

The buffalo said, “I will bury it on the great plains.” The Creator said, “They will cut into the skin of the earth and find it even there.”

Continue reading