i love celebrating every breath with thanksgiving,,, breathing in… be thanks… breathing out… thanks be… a seamless circle of giving thanks i’ve been dwelling in for almost 9 years while occupying the abundance of infinite love and gratitude… today is also an important anniversary date for me of a pivotal event that happened 43 years ago of a wedding and a sacred vow of hieros gamos that has unfolded in such a different way bringing me in this moment to clean-sing, to water purification conducting me right into the heart of original blessing with a call to voice to all my relations thanksgiving for gracing this moment, this magical moment of devotion to a path with heart, a path of compassion, a path of practicing being ever more for (pro) giving… yes, in this moment, i open myself to being more and more for giving, first to myself and rippling out gifting with every breath to all that is, we co-create the most beautiful wave of rainbow light encircling the cosmos, an unbroken circle of peace and harmony, wedding the many into the one…
i pray that you received my telepathic messages of gratitude for you sent from the stillpoint of soulitude in deepest communion, common union with all that is… and, that you heard the echoes of our recitation at the fire ceremony of a Chinook blessing that has so graced this land and her beings forever…
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We call upon the earth, our planet home, with its beautiful depths and soaring heights,
its vitality and abundance of life, and together we ask that it
Teach us, and show us the Way.
We call upon the mountains, Saddle mountain and Wahkiakum mountain, the Willapa Hills, the summits of intense silence, and we ask that they:
Teach us, and show us the Way.
We call upon the waters that rim the earth, the waters of
Our great river the I-a-gayte-imas, the waters of Willapa Bay,
And all of the waters the flowing [sic] our rivers and streams, the water that falls
Upon us, and we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the Way.
We call upon the land which grows our food, the nurturing
Soil that sustains our lives, we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the Way.
We call upon the forests, the great cedar trees reaching
Strongly to the sky with earth in their roots and the heavens in their
Branches, cedar tree is the keeper of all
Knowledge, and we ask them to
Teach us, and show us the Way.
We call upon the creatures of the fields and forests and the
Seas, our brothers and sisters Lilu the Wolf, Emulak the elk,
And Mauich the Deer, Chak-cahk the Eagle, the great
Whales and the Sturgeon, and the Salmon people who share
Our Chinook waters
Teach us, and show us the Way.
We call upon all those who have lived on this earth, our
Ancestors and our friends, who dreamed the best for future
Generations, and upon whose lives our lives are built, and
With thanksgiving, we call upon them to
Teach us, and show us the Way.
And lastly, we call upon all that we hold most sacred, the
Presence and power of the Great Spirit
Which flows through all the Universe, to be with us to
Teach us, and show us the Way.
Delivered by Chinook Tribal Chief Gary Johnson in Chinook homelands, November 18, 2005.