When I was young, my grandfather walked with me to gather water from a spring. Every morning we would start the day by going down to this sacred spot to collect our water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning ourselves. He looked towards me and asked, "Grandson do you understand why we consider this place sacred and the water sacred?" I stared back at him, wanting to get the answer right, then replied, "Because we need water to live so that we can cook, eat, and drink." He smiled at me and said, "Yes grandson, that is all true but there is more to it than that."
"This water is sacred for those reasons and because it helps keep every living creature on this earth alive, but this is not what people see in this way anymore. I looked at him puzzled by his response. He sat down on a rock beside the spring and continued. This water still is thought of as being sacred and we are still mindful of its preciousness, because we have no control over it.
You see, everyday we have to walk a long way to this sacred spring and we see where it comes from, how much or how little is here. We see this water and all of its beauty and we pray and give thanks for it being here for us and blessing us. We still understand it as a living and spiritual being, and not something we have ownership or control over; we are at its spirits mercy. We not only understand its value, but we remember to be thankful for it. To not be wasteful with it, because we have to work for our water, we walk a long ways carrying it on our backs. Our journey here, everyday, it is our constant reminder of all this."
He then looked down with
tears in his eyes. "Soon all of this will be gone and the people will not have this appreciation for our water, that we have now." "This will be another loss of true freedom and living as human beings. One day, soon, you will see what I am speaking of. You have to pay for everything in this world now days grandson. You pay for food and you pay for medicine. You pay to die and you pay for things that do not even really exist in this world, aside from being a creation of human thinking. You will see it in your time. This is already happening in the North. People have taken control over the water. They are pumping it through houses so that all they have to do is turn a knob and the water flows out. They are wasteful with the water because they have forgotten how fast it can disappear and what a blessing it is to have. One day you will see it come to pass that the water will become polluted just as it has in some places here. With that you will see it being bottled up and sold to people for money. Soon they will even have a fee for charging people for the very air we breathe. I will never see this happen and I am thankful for that. Please remember to have reverence for all the water that you are blessed with grandson. Remember these trips to the spring and remember it is not ours to control, to buy, or sell. It is a keeper of our life not the other way around."
Then he broke down into tears.
Juan Errante
www.giannicrow.com
I was looking for a dream. It was a foggy morning. The birds were chirping outside my hotel window. They were not singing their usual songs. This time they were singing empathetic songs to my heart. I got ready for the truth, behind the dream. A crow was standing in the tree looking at me; I was a stranger in this town, but not to his eyes. I offered him my breath and some tobacco He began to caw as the tobacco drifted to the ground. I headed west searching for some answers along the highway.
The path became curvy as I made my way through the mountain views. It was hard to see what was up ahead of me, as the way life sometimes unfolds for all us. My tears fell down my face and my heart kept stomping in my chest. I got closer to my own delusions. There were two crows walking down the highway, like hitchhikers. They had a funny walk like cowboys. At that moment, I was reminded that one more time I was not alone. I smiled as I waved at them. Each breath became a sigh as I wiped off the tears from my face. I have gone above and beyond. I questioned myself, whether I was walking on someone else's path and that these shoes did not belong to me--they made my spirit limp.
What happened next was a miracle to me. There was a bald eagle sitting on a an old dead tree. I felt its presence before I saw it. I turned my head, to my right the eagle started to spread his wings, and flew along my side for about three-quarters of a mile. The eagle then made a U-turn right in front me, and then headed back towards the east. That's when all my questions were answered.
Juan Errante.
http://www.giannicrow.com
"I feel that my heritage is being manipulated. It bothers me because I did not wake up one day and say I want to be an Indian now. Imagine If I went to another country to learn their traditions culture and wisdom. What claims can I make about what I have learned?"
"I see others come to our people and learn our ways and traditions and turn around and make a profit from it. People are forcing themselves onto the world, teaching and pretending to be something they are not in the name of greed. "
"Yes..." he said, "I am angry but my anger is justified before the eyes of my Creator, my ancestors, and the spirits that have walked this land since our creation. I fought to keep the spirit of my people alive. I had to hide in caves where I starved. I saw great warriors fall and die in the arms of their wives. I saw the orphans die of foreign diseases and my medicine could not save them. I felt useless before the eyes of my people. My sin has always been to love this earth and fight according to the universal laws and the law of reciprocity. We do not take more than what we need or stamp the soil with last names. Grandson, the air you breathe is the same as the great Geronimo once exhaled. Put your ear on the ground and you will still hear the buffalo's spirit running free upon the sacred plains. The blood spilled in this land will not be forgotten, even after time has forgiven their sins against our people."
"Life is a circle and, as of late, people speak about Karma. I believe this to be true because as the great book says; He who lives by the sword will die by the sword. "
"Do not repay their ignorance with hate but with compassion. My time is near. I feel very tired these days. My eyes just want to sleep and the sun can not keep me warm anymore. I will forever live in your words my little one."
- Juan Errante
In 2008 I had to travel back home to take care some family matters, and as I was waiting for my bus at the roundabout, reading a book. I heard a paperboy selling newspapers "Extra-extra read all about it!" He would scream at the top of his lungs the most gripping news about politics, sports, crime and natural disasters, around the globe. About 15 minutes later, he would pass by again selling the same newspaper with a different headline, and so on, until he sold all his newspapers for the day.
The more dramatic the news the more papers he sold. I sat there and meditated on his strategy as he was counting his money with a smile on his face, across the street from me. He was determined. He did not give up, even when people turned their heads away from him, he knew exactly how to attract people's attention.
Not long ago a good friend of mine called me up for some advice about his career, and as we was talking to me, this very story came to mind. I shared it with him and I asked him to use the same strategy.
If your headline is not selling, change it. You don't need to give up your career, your dream or lifestyle, just use a different approach to capture the attention of your audience.
What are you selling? What is the message you are sending throughout the universe? Are you still using the same headline over and over again? Change your attitude, change your outlook, knock on different doors. The universe is waiting for you to change your thoughts.
Once you have changed the energy around you, the blessings and opportunities will show up at your doorstep. If you keep thinking that things will never change for you, then that's exactly how your future it will be.
Everything we are, from the way we walk, the way we talk, and the way we dress came from how we have been taught through the school system, religion, traditions, political points of views, etc. But, we can all choose to accept or reject it. You have your own free will. The giver of life has so many blessings in store for you on your path, but may just be waiting for you to change your headline.
~Juan Errante
There were too many questions I had for the Great Spirit, when I was young, but all of them seemed to have no answers. (I am wiping off the tears of my eyes as I started remembering this painful part of my life.) Why did I feel so lonely on this Earth? Where is my family? Those were some of my questions.
My mother was eight months pregnant when my father died mysteriously. Then, she left me behind for work when I was only three years old -- under the care of my grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother died when I was six, leaving behind my grandpa, my uncle, and my aunt.
At a young age, I was exposed to one of the worst experiences a human being could go through in life, and that is the loss of one’s loved ones. I felt abandoned by the spirits, and all I wanted was to belong somewhere, be a part of something or someone. Ever since, I promised myself that I was going to find a place and have a family of my own.
I was about 7 years old when my mother gave birth to a boy that died three days later. I remembered climbing up an adobe wall and watched how my brother was carried to his burial at the cemetery. I refused, crying not to go and witness this funeral. My mother lived in the city, and I did not know that she was pregnant, or what pregnancy was for humans. She wore traditional clothes that did not show the contours of her body.
My mother used to tell me that a plane would bring me another brother, so I would scream at the top of my lungs each time I would hear a plane flying by. "Bring me another brother please!” all I wanted was someone I could play with. As I got older I realized how naive I was for believing such lies, because babies did not came from planes but from a mother's womb.
Feeling abandoned by my mother, I was wishing for a brother and missing my grandmother who died, and my grandfather who was a medicine man on the run-- traveling to other towns and cities to help those In need. I would question myself, what did I do to deserve such punishment and loneliness? I later learned that this brother who died was not the only sibling I lost- I should have been one of seven, but I was the only survivor.
I was haunted by hearing the whispers of spirits in my ears, by my dreams, and by things I saw in the sky. I desperately wanted to feel and be a normal eight year old, not only because I was being prepared by the spirits to walk my sacred path, but because I was all alone with no home, no parents, no food and living in the streets and the forest.
As I grew older, I realized that wherever I went, there were kind people that treated me better then my own blood and even my own people. The strangers on the buses, on planes, on trains, traveling as Juan Errante. Yes, you and all those people attending my lectures, whom I knew nothing about, began caring and appreciating me as a friend, as brothers, and as a family member. All I had to do was be myself.
What was a burden then, is now a blessing, because I am surrounded by people who love me all over the globe. This post is dedicated to you my true friends, thank you for allowing me to enter your lives each day.
-Juan Errante
www.giannicrow.com
Grandfather says:
"We as a race of people have always known who we are.
We have always known what purpose and place we had within creation.
We never had to ask permission to be Natives (Indian). There were no borders or rules to being who and what we are, or how we treated each other.
We knew that we were "the people."
Our nations had intermarried and mixed long before the White men ever came to Turtle Island.
We had our differences but we didn't need anyone to tell us to what tribe each of us belonged.
We
are all one people from the far reaches of the north of
turtle Island
to the south, from the east to the west.
We all knew of each other as brothers and sisters here in this land, we
traded, we lived, we loved, we made peace. Yes we had our fights as
relations do, no race of men are free of their instincts and violence.
Never in my lifetime would I have believed that our people would deny
each other of who they are.
Never in my lifetime did I think the white race, would have such a far
reaching effect on us that we would treat each other as they do us.
That we would expect one another to prove they were of the red race by
papers and white mans law.
Sadness fills my heart and disappointment in my own grandchildren.
Remember Grandchildren we are all one Race of people. We are all "the people" the red race.
Our people united and honoring each other is what we need.
We need every last one of our Indian people to remember who they are and walk the red road.
All the Indian Nations across turtle island are sacred. We all form the medicine bundle of the Red Race.
Just as all the relations in nature bring us strong medicine when combined in our bundles and ceremonies.
We are all important to the medicine we bring, no matter the differences among us."
Gianni Crow
www.giannicrow.com
When I was a young boy I remember working very hard in the fields everyday growing and collecting the crops. Each and every morning I would walk to the fields with my grandfather. The first thing he would have me do was walk to a sacred shrine to give offerings to the spirits of the plants and our grandfathers and make prayers. Sometimes I would still be very tired from the previous day of working and would not want to make the journey to the shrine.
On one particular day I whined about the extra walk and said to my grandfather that we should just head out to the fields and start working. He looked down at me with outrage written across his face, and I awaited the worst. He begin to speak to me at first yelling and then he calmed down. He said "What do you mean we should skip the prayers and offering at the shrine grandson?" I was very scared and backed up a little bit and felt immediately ashamed. I said to him bashfully " Well grandfather couldn't we just make extra prayers tomorrow and skip today? It is a long walk and I am tired." He said to me,
"Grandson we never skip a day of showing gratitude and respect, because if we did it would become another and another. We are taking from the earth so we must give back. We must never forget to show proper respect to the spirits of the plant people and to the creator. When we gather the corn we never walk over it when we have placed it in piles, because to do that would be very disrespectful. The women do not walk or cross over any of the crops as well, for they know that it would be a dishonor to the spirits."
"Our reverence for this balance with the Earth, and the medicine that the plant and animals give us is why we honor them at every meal. It is why we set aside a plate for them to partake of first before we eat. In the North, and even in many of the cities here, people have forgotten to be grateful for their food. They have become disconnected from the food in such a way that they do not have relationship to it anymore at all. Their food sits around and it is not fresh. It is processed and manipulated so it has lost a lot of its medicine and healing properties. When the food is not respected it does not keep us healthy. It is what happens when we forget to be mindful that food is also medicine and powerful. We are not the master over food it is our master. It is a caretaker of our very lives, therefore we must respect it and be thankful to it everyday, not just when it is convenient. Do you understand grandson?"
I looked up at him and nodded my head and I promised that I would not forget why our prayers and offerings were so important.
The wisdom of the words in my art reflect the order and balance that was already put into place by the Creator. The balance is already there. The seed has been planted.
It is up to the human race to stretch its limits of mind, its imagined differences, and as a race of human beings that makes the choice to transcend these things. The only major difference between human beings and the rest of our relations on this earth is the ability to choose and create within the dreamtime and this reality.
What we can imagine and dream, we create on this earth. The results of those abilities have a rippling effect on this earth and to all that inhabit it. The question is: can mankind move beyond what we have been? Are we limited to what we are now! How much is pre-ordained and how much of it is free will? I guess there is only one way to find out. Keep going and keep dreaming. Keep aspiring to make that seed, that the creator gave us, grow.
I was about to have dinner. I sat at the table and noticed the chair in front of me was empty. I felt lonely at that point, not only because my partner was away but because this is a sacred moment for both of us. I silently closed my eyes and imagined she was there holding my hand to bless our food and to thank those who made it possible to get it to our table.
What is prayer? What does it mean to you? But most importantly, do you pray? According to the dictionary, prayer is "a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship."
Most people these days don't have time for much. Some can't even sit down to eat because their jobs are so demanding. The rat-race has taken over our humanity and we have become soulless robots.
Technology governs our lives with wireless gadgets like cellphones and tablets anywhere we go. We do not know how to unplug ourselves from the madness of civilization. We are constantly distracted in a virtual world that does not exist.
When I was growing up, I used to have many questions and often I approached my grandfather to consult with him. He would say to me; "Have you prayed about it? Because I don't know more then you do." Those words made me realize the importance of being in touch with Spirit, my divine intuition and those who have gone before us. Your mental clarity comes from meditation and prayer, a quiet mind has no room for doubts and insecurities because your thoughts will be peaceful and crystal clear.
"Grandpa, do I have to be on my knees to say a prayer?" No. Being on your knees is a form of humility and reverence, but we stand facing east to make an offering and smoke our pipes to the Bringer of All Life. You can pray standing, walking, sitting, or anywhere you need to be. That's what he taught me.
The true purpose of prayer is for us to remember where we came from, is to unplug from our chaos and reconnect with your own roots. Prayer brings us together with loved ones, it makes miracle happen, it gives us hope, faith and strength. Prayer has different meanings for all religious traditions but we all do it for the same reason and that is to connect us with the universal mind of all things known and unknown to man.
GC
Respect is a word that is constantly used but rarely honored among
human beings. Growing up native was not easy for a lot of us. It was not cool to be native when I was a kid or a teenager, we were not "in style," as I recall it.
People were very racist and would call me "dumb Indian" or stupid. In their eyes I was neither intelligent, spiritual, nor did I deserved any respect, because I spoke differently and dressed differently.
Thirty something years later, the media decides to use native symbols to profit from our people again, but why now? There is a spiritual awareness taking place all over the world and the media has always romanticized native people for their spirituality. We are a novelty now, so anywhere you look these days people are wearing native jewelry. Our sacred symbols have become the latest print for fabrics used in the fashion industry. In our modern society we have become mascots, sidekicks for cowboys, cartoon characters and statues for tobacco shops. Our images also have been used in tattoos, rebellious hair cuts, earplugs, piercings, and you name it.
People want to belong or be a part of something and that's perfectly fine but not without knowing or taking the time to learn more about the cultural meaning of things. I call that respect as well and we can not go around stealing the sacredness of native traditions around the world to make a business out of it. It's morally wrong. Our grandfathers gave their lives defending our spirituality. The land you stand on today is sacred to us, because their blood was spilled without cause, they were killed for the rights to practice our way of life.
We have always shared our wisdom to others for the betterment of humanity, because we were the last ones to be connected with Mother Earth. "Our ways include everybody, but theirs selfishly don't care about ours" that's what my grandfather said. We need to respect one another with the same compassion you do with your people. We have to honor our own ways and practice them everyday. No matter where you came from, you have traditions or a religion that speaks about peace and love. I speak from the heart of my people and all we want is your respect. You already claimed the land we called our home.
I have been through hell and back! Does that sound familiar to you? I know you can relate with me on many levels, because we all have asked the same questions as we look into the sky; "Does anybody give a damn about me?"
When you find yourself in the middle of the chaos, it's almost impossible to view outside your own situation. So we question God, the Virgin Mary, and all the saints that come to mind. At this point all your fears are triggered and your higher self stays suppressed in one corner. But, in the darkness, you find the switch to turn the light on from your shadow side.
We need these moments to grow and understand ourselves, to be able to learn from our choices, along with our past and present situations.
You are not alone and there is always someone in the distance praying for you, loving you and thinking about you.
We all feel lonely sometimes, but rarely are we alone unless you live in the mountains with no one to talk to. Even so, mother nature is all around nurturing you and waiting patiently for you to connect. She knows your name, your address and your needs. If you stop for one second, you can hear her voice when the birds sing, when the wind blows, when the river runs, when the sun tingles your skin, when a leaf falls to your feet, when clouds pass you by across the sky. Can you hear her saying "I love you?” Mother Nature speaks to us in a universal language, but are we ready to be comforted or are we still in the mode of being the victim? What's your mental status? Are you still hurt about something you can do nothing about? We have no control of anything or anyone. All you can do is be responsible for your own actions and to own them when you are in the wrong.
There's thousands of people praying everyday for you from all kinds of religions around the world. Love is sent throughout all of the universe. All you need to do is open your heart to receive that blessing. Mother is calling your name. Are you ready to be healed?
GC
