Teachings for Life ... · Inspiring Speakers (Free)

Teachings for Life ...

One of the things I love the most about my culture (Anishinaabe or Ojibwe culture) is the fact that teachings about anything (cooking, how to care for a drum or regalia, etc.) are actually life lessons (which is why they are given).

An example is the teaching that when we dance at pow wow, you keep dancing even if it rains. (Translation, if your speaking business gets hard, KEEP GOING. If life gets hard, KEEP GOING!)

Here is the entry from my first book that sums up a great memory of my son (today is his birthday) and a great teaching. Enjoy!

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The teaching is simple ... if the rains come you do NOT stop dancing! The wind may howl, and you may get very cold, you may be tested, you may grow tired, and you may feel weak, but if you hang on, if you KEEP dancing, the sun will return, the sky will clear, and the pow wow will continue.

We were new dancers, far from experts on the relevant teachings or even technique. But our teachings, our new way of life, meant everything to us. We “walked the walk” not just “talked the talk” so when the rains came, we did not stop.

But my dress is made of a very heavy material and its weight is intense on a good day but as the rain soaked into the material, the mass of the dress grew exponentially. But we kept dancing. I could barely see him through the storm. My son, my little man, his regalia drenched by the rains, but his head was down. He was determined and we danced.

Through the torrential rains that day, I watched my son become a man, I watched as his determination drove him to follow that which he had been taught, and I watched him look up at me from across the grounds ... and smile.

Years later, he would share how that storm, that test, that day was one of the best days of his life and I cried, for I had always felt exactly the same way.

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