Lakota Friends

This past weekend my local community spent Saturday with Basil and Charlotte Brave Heart. Basil and Char are Lakota friends from the Pine Ridge reservation. They generously give of themselves to share healing ceremonies at the Lutheran Church of the Nativity in Golden Valley each spring and fall.

Lakota healing ceremonies pre date Western medicine and in many ways surpass it. The setting involves all of creation with expressed acknowledgement that we are all one with our Creator and everything/everyone. Many of our ills arise from a sense of isolation. Sitting all together in a circle, repeatedly experiencing circling rounds of blessings with sage, immersed in vibrations of the circle of drummers, voices of singers, and dancing feet, every fiber of my being felt connected.

We joined in prayer with a circle of men and one woman combat vets who came forward for cleansing of scars of war and PTSD in their lives. Minds, hearts and hands of the spiritually and physically wounded vets were touched with a sacred eagle feather as we all stood with them in song and drumming dance. In another moving ritual, anyone who mourned the loss of loved ones stepped into the center for Wiping of Tears. Each one, again with drumming, song and dance was wiped with the sacred eagle feather. Each also made an offering of blessed tobacco and drank from a bowl of sacred water. (What is 'sacred' water? All water is sacred because all water comes from a divine source.) Basil almost always retells us about his grandmother teaching him to step outside first thing each morning with an offering of water in thanksgiving to our sacred creator.

A friend of ours e-mailed the next day: "Thanks for friends to share a wonderful day. I woke up early and was sitting on the deck with a cup of coffee, the first light is coming and the birds are singing. I thought of Basil's message, just listen to the birds, see the light, feel the wind, and let that be your prayer to the Creator -- when we start saying words, our ego gets in the way." I so agree. No wonder my favorite prayer is to simply center myself in God's presence and "just be."

I sometimes think St. Francis was Lakota - Basil is so like him. We are all one. Healing comes through acknowledgement of who we really are.