Mitakuye Oyasin
"Re-entry" - the feeling that you're back where you belong and that you've regained the 'rhythm' of your routine after an absence - has been particularly difficult for me this year. Actually, as each successive trip deepens the friendships and the ties we have to the community on Rosebud, there's an acute awareness that, when we leave, we leave part of our hearts behind.
And OH, how I miss the South Dakota sky!
Throughout the day,in the midst of work, laundry and grocery shopping, I kept reviewing conversations and experiences from the past week - and one made me smile with each remembrance.
One of the greatest gifts the Rosebud community gives me every year is a vivid reminder of how 'connected' and inter-related we all are; both to other people and to all life forms. In fact the Lakota have a phrase to describe it - Mitakuye Oyasin - which translates to "All my Relations" or "We are all Related".
On the reservation, it seems you literally cannot go to the gas station in town without running into someone at the next pump who's related to someone we know. (That actually happened to me on Thursday. A man started a conversation w/me when he saw our MO license plates; then asked where we were staying and then said that he was the uncle of the Director of HFH. He asked me to tell Sandy he needed someone to come cut his grass!)
A short time later, as we were leaving a store in town, we also mentioned to the owner that Sandy had sent us in. She laughed and told us she was his sister; she told us to tell him to comb his hair!
Our friend, Harold, told us a funny story about the 'downside' of being so connected. He said that,in high school, every time he began dating someone, he would have to bring her home to meet his mother; not to get her approval per se, but for her to ask the girl about who her people were to see if she and Harold were biologically related. Laughingly, Harold recalled too many times when she'd basically say, "Nope, take her back, she's related to you!" He claims that's why he had to 'hook up' with a woman from a different tribe in Oklahoma!
It seems to me that when you define yourself as being intimately connected to ALL others in your community, whether through genetics, marriage or other ties not formally recognized, the level and quality of your responsiveness changes. If each person is literally seen as being part of your immediate family, it makes their well being, needs and concerns more intimately connected to you; how they're doing MATTERS. Even if circumstances prevent you from honoring a request (to my knowledge Mr White Hat hasn't gotten his grass cut - and Sandy didn't comb his hair!)the whole interaction is treated more tenderly than if there was no acknowledged connection.
I think the difficulty with re-entry for several of us is that we're increasingly aware of how much we're related to the people on Rosebud; we matter to each other and it's always hard to be away from family you love.
And OH, how I miss the South Dakota sky!
Throughout the day,in the midst of work, laundry and grocery shopping, I kept reviewing conversations and experiences from the past week - and one made me smile with each remembrance.
One of the greatest gifts the Rosebud community gives me every year is a vivid reminder of how 'connected' and inter-related we all are; both to other people and to all life forms. In fact the Lakota have a phrase to describe it - Mitakuye Oyasin - which translates to "All my Relations" or "We are all Related".
On the reservation, it seems you literally cannot go to the gas station in town without running into someone at the next pump who's related to someone we know. (That actually happened to me on Thursday. A man started a conversation w/me when he saw our MO license plates; then asked where we were staying and then said that he was the uncle of the Director of HFH. He asked me to tell Sandy he needed someone to come cut his grass!)
A short time later, as we were leaving a store in town, we also mentioned to the owner that Sandy had sent us in. She laughed and told us she was his sister; she told us to tell him to comb his hair!
Our friend, Harold, told us a funny story about the 'downside' of being so connected. He said that,in high school, every time he began dating someone, he would have to bring her home to meet his mother; not to get her approval per se, but for her to ask the girl about who her people were to see if she and Harold were biologically related. Laughingly, Harold recalled too many times when she'd basically say, "Nope, take her back, she's related to you!" He claims that's why he had to 'hook up' with a woman from a different tribe in Oklahoma!
It seems to me that when you define yourself as being intimately connected to ALL others in your community, whether through genetics, marriage or other ties not formally recognized, the level and quality of your responsiveness changes. If each person is literally seen as being part of your immediate family, it makes their well being, needs and concerns more intimately connected to you; how they're doing MATTERS. Even if circumstances prevent you from honoring a request (to my knowledge Mr White Hat hasn't gotten his grass cut - and Sandy didn't comb his hair!)the whole interaction is treated more tenderly than if there was no acknowledged connection.
I think the difficulty with re-entry for several of us is that we're increasingly aware of how much we're related to the people on Rosebud; we matter to each other and it's always hard to be away from family you love.
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