Impact

My Relatives Say: “You do not know the quiet power you possess.”

I’ve thought about this for many decades. Arrogant, hubris, forceful, blunt, are all words that have been used to describe me. So the words “quiet power” makes me want to stop dead in my tracks. I personally don’t see myself as arrogant, I see myself as confident. I don’t consider myself god-like but rather as having a sense of understanding when it comes to dealing with the human condition as a spiritual being. And it can be so damn hard to rise above the impact of words or labels.

Here’s what I mean. We all have a voice which speaks to us. Sometimes it tells us not to take a certain flight or a particular drive to work. Sometimes it tells us we are falling in love or to avoid dubious people. Sometimes we resist the voice, ignoring what it tells us. Predictably we discover the voice was right all along.

My Relatives Say: “Don’t forget you are a part of everything and everything is a part of you.”

Our bodies, mind, and spirit are moved by Grandmother Moon, she who controls the tides. In the human condition we are made up of approximately 75% water. The rest becomes nothing but dust without water. Both of these elements are vital to the earth and sky as well as to we humans. This holds true to every animal walking the planet. This is true to the very atmosphere we live in.

If we do not listen to our brothers and sisters, be they water, air, fire, or land, we doom ourselves and by extension the next seven generations. We are all connected. We are all related.

My Relatives Say: “It is not good to separate yourself from the land or from Great Mystery.”

We do not have to walk barefoot in the snow to feel connected to our Mother. We do not have to suffocate in order to appreciate Father Sky. Then again, maybe we do. Whatever it takes to make a human feel their part in this world, then so be it. And if for just a moment we take the time to say “I Love You!” to all that is a part of us then it’ll be like a boomerang that comes back to us with “I Love You, too!”

We humans are like broken pieces of mirror. Some might say a broken mirror is bad luck. But My Relatives Say: “It is better to be a part of the mystery than not.” If we put the broken pieces of mirror together we get a clearer reflection of who we are as relatives.

Then and only then, do we come to understand the impact of our quiet power. The power we have to change the way we see each other, the power we have to impact our lives as well as others around us. Good, bad, ugly, beautiful, empathy or indifference, it all comes back us. If we resist we will be met with resistance. If we hold hatred close, disgust and revulsion will pursue us without relent. But if we become conscious to the impact of our quiet power then we soon learn there is little we cannot do. Even the most heinous of experiences cannot bring down the truth my relatives speak. History has shown this for more than 518 years.

Yes, I own the words forceful and blunt because my convictions won’t allow me to do anything else. And it’s not because I am arrogant. It’s because the voice inside me, the voice of all those ancestors, tell me this is honesty in its deepest form. If the impact of these words is considered hubris there is nothing I can do to change it.

Each and every day I will say “I Love You” to all of creation, to all my relatives, and mean it. I don’t have to agree with the hurricane winds or the flooding rains. I don’t have to yield to those who would steal my quiet power. But I can love it all. And I will stand by the impact of my sincerity.