Sprung FORTH

Spring is here, Spring as in a move upward and forward, a sudden emergence, an Arising from a Source and of course the season of revival. Revival was in the house or perhaps just outside this week of the Northern Hemisphere's Equinox as we reawakened our Sunday One-Day Retreats. Girl Power manifested Big Time with a visit from a great group led by one of the Detroit yoga community’s leading lights Ms.Soojin Kim. Soojin’s classes “are created to take students on a journey inside the body and help connect mindful alignment, pranayama, and elevate the humanity within ourselves.”  

That’s the journey, the collective movement she helped us make  Sunday, co-piloted by dear friend and wellness guide Jaclyn Renee, who provided a supreme, scrumptious vegan lunch. Afterward, we stilled ourselves for a bit, then took part in Ceremony, where many tears were shed, prayers said and burdens lightened. For their courage thanks also to Kaylee, Jaclyn, Naomi, Sarah, Stephanie, and Shanon as well as their individual and collective will to heal the feminine divine. How lovely are they above (?) resembling members of the Aynu tribe, women of the indigenous people of Japan. Princesses. Queens. Goddesses. Warriors. 

Speaking of the Feminine Divine and Girl Power and Healing, I have some wonderful new experiences to share after having traveled a bit in the month of February. I left on Valentine’s Day, giving my heart this year to the good people of India and am pleased to report the entire country reciprocated. Alas, there’ll be the telling of a tale or two. I’m also happy to convey that my diabolical little plan – to run retreats for ten or eleven months a year then take a spiritual journey and return with renewed energy and new knowledge - seems to be working. More on the soulful deliberation of Atma Vichara, why the nation of India mistook me for the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, and other cobra tails and tales to come. 

Oklahoma's Gilcrease Museum

Thirty-six hours before my triumphant return to Michigan last week, I pulled out of Oklahoma City after a night’s rest, jumping on Interstate 44 cutting northeast to Tulsa. There amongst the Osage Hills stands one of the country’s most distinguished facilities for the preservation and study of American Art and History. The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art – known as Glicrease Museum – houses an unmatched collection of Native art and materials, including the world’s most comprehensive collection of artifacts of the American West.

Surprisingly taken with the beauty of middle America, I shared my love letter to the Kansas plains, where killer winds, me and a dozen birds of prey floated across the landscape on mid-winter thermals. On the way back, Oklahoma - the state's name derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people" - offered miles and miles of wavin’ wheat that sure smelled sweet, and the same wind came right behind the rain, just like the musical says, or sings rather.  Eastern Oklahoma looked a lot like Michigan in April, with sun bleached, yellowed fields, craggy bare forests and blazing sunshine. 

Back in the 1800's, as European-Americans expanded westward, a series of migrations and forced removals by the United States government relocated numerous Native nations to “Indian Territory”, in present-day Oklahoma. The Choctaws, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, known as the “Five Civilized Tribes” were removed from the Southeast to Oklahoma in the 1830’s, culminating in the famous Trail of Tears. Throughout the late 1800’s, tribes from the Great Plains and California were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma. Geronimo and a small band of Chiricahua Apache eluded American troops in what proved to be the last of the Indian wars, the Bedonkohe Chiricahua leader removed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1894. Today, Oklahoma is home to 39 distinct Native American tribes.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, many of Oklahoma’s Native peoples asserted their sovereignty, writing constitutions and establishing tribal governments to provide social services for their people.  Native American artists in Oklahoma produced distinct work, celebrating their cultural heritage and responding to a range of influences from the diverse Native people of the region. Today, culture and language preservation continue to be a priority for Oklahoma’s Native nations.

The story of Native American Art is one of many traditions and cultures. It’s a story of change, continuity and endurance. The breadth of Native Art encompasses the sacred and the secular, the political and domestic, the Ceremonial and commercial. Throughout America, many Native peoples continue their ancient worldviews and lifeways, often expressed through music, dance, Ceremony and the visual arts. Despite centuries of epidemics, cultural, religious and political repression, and forced removal from homelands, Native traditions continue on. Exhibitions at the Gilcrease present some of the finest creative expressions and rich diversity offered by Native artists, ancient, historic and contemporary.

Happy Groundhog Day 2018

Well, it seems that Punxsutawney Phil, the official representative of the rodent family Sciurdae belonging to the group of large ground squirrels otherwise known as Groundhogs, has spoken. Or not spoken. Or has had a gentleman with an Amish-styled beard, bifocals, tuxedo and black stove pipe hat speak for him, once again.

Phil, that “Seer or seers, the prognosticator of prognosticators” according to his black-clad spokesman, emerged from his cozy den somewhere in Southeastern Pennsylvania early this morning, and, “After glancing an appreciate glance to his faithful followers in attendance, proclaimed, ‘Many shadows do I see, six more weeks of winter it must be!”. With all due respect to Phil, I prefer being buried in snow and huddled against icy cold in February and have found this winter season to be a balmy bust. Note: this article was originally written in 2012, a period of non-Winter for much of Midwest America. Currently, we are frozen over with a half- foot of fresh snow and holding strong at fourteen degrees. 

As to Groundhogs, or their official Day rather, its cultural and spiritual significance  is somewhat limited. The experiences of egocentric weatherman Phil Connors, however, played by Bill Murray in the 1993 film of the same name, does offer some insight.  In the film, reliving February 2nd over and over again at first drives Phil to hedonism; with no fear of log-term consequences, he seduces women, steals money, drives recklessly and is eventually thrown in jail (Groundhog Day has entered common use in English as a reference to an unfavorable situation that seems to repeat itself). After realizing that even suicide can’t save him from the ongoing time loop, Phil has a change of heart and leverages his strange time situation to better himself to learn, among other things, how to play the piano, sculpt ice and speak French.

Groundhog Day according to an online resource “is now considered a tale of self-improvement which emphasizes the need to look inside and realize that the only satisfaction  in life comes from turning inward and concerning oneself with others rather than concentrating solely on one’s own wants and desires. According to  my online source, the phrase also ‘has become a shorthand illustration for the concept of spiritual trasncendence (!)’ As such, the film has become a favorite of Buddhists because they see its themes of selflessness and rebirth as a reflection of their own spiritual messages. It has also, in the Catholic tradition, been seen as a representation of Purgatory, even dubbed by some religious leaders as the ‘most spiritual film of our time.'”  Oy, who knew?

A few things thing I do know, and these from personal experience: youth’s biggest folly is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting some different result. When I consider some of the old, worn-out, rutted roads I've walked, hanging out with the same people in the places expecting some different vibe, I’m thinking I can  learn a thing or two from Punxsutawney Phil, the man-varmint who had a change of heart, and maybe choose a similar upward road for my life and future. Also knowing that groundhogs are Woodchucks, I adore Woodchucks, understanding that spiritually they are symbols of hard work, the Woodchuck Nation always being ready to work hard, doing all they would chuck if they could chuck, in order to reach their goals and be well-rewarded for their earthy efforts.