It's Sunday. Thanks for this post to Jennifer Kreisberg

(check her out at www.myspace.com/jenniferkreisberg)


"President George W Bush and God's Law

Dear President Bush,
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's law. I have learned a great deal from you and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them:

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not to Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They
claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states that he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that, even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I
don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there "degrees" of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them (Lev. 24:10-16)? Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people
who sleep with their in-laws (Lev.20:14)?
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging."

"Have you ever seen a bird trying hard to sing?"

“Have you ever seen a bird trying hard to sing? Birds never work to make a song. They sing effortlessly. That’s how they teach us to love one another. We need to allow love to happen without any effort. It’s natural to love.”

Brazilian healer, Otavia Aloes Pimentel Barbosa
from Hands of Faith, edited by Bradford Keeney PhD, Ringing Rocks Press in association with Leete Island Books.Philadelphia, PA, 2003

And to hate, fear or dislike takes incredible effort. We bend ourselves into unnatural shapes. Then our energy gets caught in the crooks and twists. This goes for all bodies: human, family, tribal, national, global or universal.

ELIZABETH WOODY Featured Guest Blogger

LONG WALK (starring BEAR)
Photo and Story c Elizabeth Woody 2008


Walk in love is my mantra in the morning and at night. Walking is as elemental as water, which is my first medicine and protection. Walking is the hallowed tempo and my expression of vigorous space. It is the calm between words. In between turmoil the calm is preferable. In calm spaces to love is to be both vulnerable and omnipotent. If you love then you can start to fear loss. If you fear loss then you are conquerable. To become fearless with love is both potent and sacred. You move and radiate peace.

I walk twice a day with my dog, Anahui-Anahui (Baby Black Bear). Our walk is in love. Absent of introduction we literally look a fearsome couple even though we mean no harm. My companion is the “King Kong” of dogs. He is a 138 pound black mix of reservation muscle dogs, a “wolf in a lab disguise,” as my friend calls him. Spawned from the hunters and protectors of Indian country he was less than two months of age when rescued as a dumped puppy . He is progeny of the beauty found in survival of the fittest and its bestial elegance. I am a big, brown Native woman of the Diné of the Southwestern United States, and NW Columbia River Plateau peoples, Nusuxmí Tanánma (People of the salmon). There aren’t many like us at all in the world.

I am born from those who survived the arduous long walks of the Nineteenth century. One ancestress walked from the Columbia River gorge to the present day reservation , stopping along the way only for the soldiers to round up more people who up until that time lived free. Perhaps the shortest walk of all, it still was forced, and people could only carry with them what they could hold in their arms. They left their cedar plank houses filled with the finest of cultural accoutrements of the time. The finely woven baskets, nets, and carved wooden standards of their clans went to the abyss of neglect or through hands of Indian Traders to international museums.

I am not a woman to melt into as one would a mother. I am not a woman to lust after as the quintessential naked dark woman of earthy sensuality, the paleo-erotic American fantasy. I am a woman who is statuesque like the heavy basalt palisades of volcanic landscape and one whose core burns with ferocity like a volcano. I am burlesque-ishly bawdy with sympathetic audiences, intimidating to those coddled in the norm, and then some interpret me as robust. I am attracted to few, and most chose to ignore me. I am a Native woman born to the mainstream maelstrom of the perpetually enslaved wage earners. There are those who wish me out the door and out of sight. In the past, there are those who wished my kind dead.

I am the indomitable big brown Native woman, and like the nameless and faceless Yeti or the Sasquatch, can disappear in an instant. The lawless west feared my Navajo ancestors as they did Apaches, the “guerilla” force of the Southwest. Kit Carson hunted and starved the Navajo people and forced a 300 mile long walk to Fort Sumner on the Bosque Redondo Reservation . It was unimaginable oppression. Still, my Dine ancestors’ had an axiom that I thrive in today--- Walk in beauty. Beauty is not a state of attraction, but a state of unity and indivisible spirit. It is the balance of night and day, the parched and the quenched, the beginning of creative will. It is love. With love I protect my rescue stray and our past is hushed.

When we walk we bless the earth with our contentment. We are mixes, mixed up by negligence and historical trauma. Manhandled by veterinarians, and bluff charged by neighborhood dogs, my dog can be fearful. In our puppy 101 class the people of the other puppies pulled their lolly-pups away from us. “My, his teeth are sooo big!” one said. I thought, “The better to eat you with my dear.” but said “They suit his big head.” Though the majority of our class time was spent in “time-outs” we eventually “graduated.” What we really learned was we create peace with our own fearless love.

For more information on Elizabeth Woody, please see:
http://www.nativewiki.org/Elizabeth_Woody
eawoody@bigfoot.com

What is weighing you down?

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Despite the Dirty Window of My Room

The Sun with a Helper Photo c Joy Harjo 2008

A Little Bit of Flying, a few prayers

Flying from Chicago to Los Angeles, 12/30/07 This image is a prayer for Rainy--


-- and all our Navajo relatives.


--And though it comes apart, here it is, back together again on the North Shore of O'ahu--

We are one body. How beautiful we are in this light.

Overwhelming

The darkness hits.
Slams.
Consciousness turns belly up.
Yes, I see you.
Yes, I know you in myself.
No.
Keep moving.
No matter what you see and hear.
Keep love.