The Lakota people say, "Mitakuye Oyasin."
It is a phrase one utters in greeting and in parting. It is also a prayer. It is also a fact.
There are many translations, differing in semantics and in emphasis -- all attempting to convey in English a concept too all-encompassing for our words of delineation and compartmentalization. The one taught to me is "We are all related."
When I think about this for any length of time, and more especially when I hear and say it, I am as if infused with an overarching sense of peace and security. We are all related.
We have relations who are powerful and determined. We have relations who are lost without direction. We have relations who have supported us, who have betrayed us, who are ignoring us. We have relations whose company we actively enjoy and those who rub us the wrong way. We have relations everywhere; some sustain us and others drain us. Sometimes these are interchangeable. We have relations who write songs and those who make bombs. We are related to those who know how to turn sunlight into stored food-energy and carbon dioxide into oxygen!
We are related to those who pay attention and those who are oblivious. To those we hug and those we consume. We are all related. We are all related.
Welcome. Sleep here. It is good.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
posted at: 22:10 | path: | permanent link to this entry
