My restless mind is reminding me to love the shadows as well as the light... in the shadows lay the mystery, the learning. We may carry scars from walking into the unknown, but we also carry the moments that would not have happened if we didn't dare to go beyond our limits. And how much more do we love the sunlight after a day of rain?

Poetry

Many moons ago I had some poetry published in a modest journal. I could no longer recite what I had written. The bulk of it had to do with childhood memories that were less than pleasant, punctuated on occasion with the naivety and whimsy of an eight year old. I did love to write though, keeping my musings to myself, stashing them away in a creased journal kept between my mattress'. I felt the urge to write again this past winter and the words came effortlessly. My structure is off to be sure, and I couldn't tell you the difference between a ballad an ode or an alexandrine but here's two that I like. Maybe their rubbish, but an artist is their own worse critic and I rather like them.

SAVING GRACE
On a footpath well worn by her grandmothers
She walks on
Memories of lovers are silenced like fallen heroes
Laid to rest beneath her glass slippers
Her gown trailing behind filthy and worn
Her bejeweled hair falling limp
Under tissue thin voile and frayed silks
A handmaid
Of ordinary marrow, wearied from her endeavors
Walks on
And as her adornment falls away the
Delicate armour beneath lays witness to a birthright
She had forgotten
With no steed in sight nor banners winnowing
And with no trumpets to herald her arrival
She walks on
A princess on a mission to save herself


THE JOURNEY
Small and vulnerable she stumbles along her path
Kicking up dust, harvesting sustenance
Posing seeds
Her weathered face turns upward in gratitude
The sunlight a balm on her heart
Mending it once more
She sighs
Perseverance
Surrender
Exhaustion
She seeks shade, solace
From her knowing
And allows herself a moment of nothingness
Time passes
Her youth returns to her and with arms wide open
She embraces a new path

- Nicole Evangeline Grace

Awohali

My given Cherokee name, Awohali Aghya Gagi Nvda, is hard enough to say let alone live up to. It means Eagle Woman Who Rises to the Sun. I am trying though. I have always been fascinated with altered states of perception and drawn to shamanic realities. Eagle medicine teaches us to take on the responsibility and power of becoming so much more than we think we are. You learn to move between worlds and touch all of life with healing. From a karmic aspect it takes an individual lifetimes to reach a place where the repercussions of everything done or said ( or not done or said) will be strong and swift. It's a constant learning process. Here are some characteristics of Eagle that those with this totem will be working with.

- An increased ability and need to learn to work with emotions, psychisms and all aspects of spirituality with greater control.

- There must be involvement with creativity.

- A willingness to experience extremes, there will be tests of faith.

- And, a willingness to dig deep, to seek out the true emotional aspects of yourself , and by doing so to rediscover the lost child and awaken to a higher sense of purity, creativity, passion and healing.