Ways of Old
The Grandmothers are an essential part of the native culture -- for they are the teachers who remind us of the past, and how it is to guide us in the future. They teach us their wisdom, then guide us to the Grandfathers to complete the teachings. They are the watchers of the children for they know that the ways must be passed on, for someday they will be the keepers of the old ways. Some say the old ways are the old way, but through time the old ways have shown that there is only one way of life and in the ways of our culture we stand by Honor, Integrity, Respect and Love for our people. It is not to say that we do not honor all people, for we do.
We are in a time that was foretold by the Grandfathers. The old ones know that it will never be like the time of their Grandfathers and Grandmothers, but a time of new awakening of the old ways. The Grandmothers know that time is short and their work may be hard for they are the last to be close to the ancestors of the ones that live the ways of old. Their Grandfathers and Grandmothers experienced the great buffalo herds and the grandness of nature as it was meant to be. For in that time you took what the people needed for every day life, cared of mother earth, and thanked her of the abundance. Those were a time.
There was a time when it seemed that the old way would die and never return as the new ways of this nation were changing and new things were all around. Some were good ways, but there were also not so good ways. Many succumbed to the not so good -- the ways of and neglect, and worse. But through those ways our Elders have become stronger and must now move forward, teaching the traditions of the ancestors.
Today's Grandmother travels from place to place when she is called and she is called often. There is much work in the way of our customs and it is part of the culture that must live on in our children and their children's children. For there are those that are watching that may not be natives but have been here a long time and see that the old ways were good and too live by them in their hearts. For they too know that the old ways of Honor, Integrity, Respect and Love of one another and the respect of mother earth and all that inhabit it are of utmost importance.
Let us help one of those Grandmothers in her journeys, in the ways of the ancestors and her work of today. Let us be a part, to know that we are helping in keeping the wisdoms of old alive. Let us help at least one grandmother on this path. Though there are many and we would like to help them all. We can at least help one.
