Last week I
picked up Elder Grandmother Singing Waters from the airport. She came
from Mt. Shasta to Palmer to spend the next month with our
international peace project and to help guide the vision of our
healing work for 2008.
During
our first meeting, I reported to our staff what we had been able to
give to the world community in 2007. Grandmother turned, looked me
straight in the eye and said, “It is better to receive then to give.” I was stunned by her response, thinking she must have
accidentally said this backwards. Seeing the confused look in my eyes,
she calmly and sincerely stated again clearly, “It’s better to Receive then Give.” I realized her inflection was clearly saying then,
not than. Still, having been brought up in a Christian home where
selfless service was modeled to me as one of the highest human values,
I was still grappling to understand.
She went on.
“Receiving is the highest level of service you can give! It is when
you are singing with the song of creation. You are the vessel for the
Creator’s Light to be brought to earth. This is your highest
spiritual purpose.”
All staff in
the meeting room put down their pens. All eyes were fixed on
Grandmother Singing Waters. She looked at us and continued.
“I can see
by how you are looking at me that you need more understanding of your
true spiritual purpose. Your higher purpose here on earth is to Receive
because your Light comes from Creator and you must first open
yourself as a vessel to receive this Light.
Receive that you are this Light of Great Spirit and that you
are this Love. In order
to Give, you must be first
willing to be silent, to listen and receive the Light of Creator. Even
your Bible says it: “Be still and know God!”
By now Grandmother
Singing Waters had our full attention.
She went on.
“Now the word Purpose
means Focus. Your Higher Purpose could also be called your Higher
Focus. Your Higher Purpose boils down to the choice to receive or
Focus Light. Receiving is
magnetic. It draws, focuses, or grounds light into a vehicle. That
vehicle, that vessel, is you! Your higher purpose is to focus love in
the here-now through your vessel, your body.
Then you can fulfill your life purpose, which is to give this
love away.
“In our tribe we call
your life purpose your giveaway. Each person has a unique life purpose
or a unique way of giving away love.
But first you must be willing to receive and fill your cup.
“Do you see? You
receive, and then you give. It’s
an endless circle. You become an empty vessel of love’s energy
exchange.”
Then
Grandmother clenched her fist. “Great Spirit can not use a clenched
fist that is always busy doing. When you relax and open, you can
receive more light—and more love to giveaway.
When you receive and listen, then Great Spirit can whisper
sweet nothings in your ear!
“And when
you have an overflowing heart, the giving is pure, with no expectation
of return. When your heart is not full and you over give, then you are
grasping for something outside of you to fill that heart, looking for
appreciation or recognition. Then the giving becomes conditional and
is often tainted with the resentment of the ego’s needs.”
Having just
completed a six month, 18,000 mile tour of peace work, I started to
understand what she was getting at. She looked at me again and said.
“Receive what is! Receive the birds, the trees, and all the people
around you. The highest thing you can do for others is to just
receive. The person who can receive draws out the best in others. You
can do this in each moment by breathing in and saying silently or
aloud what you most love. Gratitude is how you acknowledge and receive
the Creator’s Light in All Things.”
At that moment I started
thinking to myself what would it be like this year if during the
holidays, instead of frantically shopping for that special item to
give, we could just receive the people in our lives. What if this year
we really received our children, our parents, husbands, wives, aunts,
brothers, and cousins for who they really are? Maybe we could initiate
a sharing at the dinner table by simply stating what we love about
each of then. But we don’t have to save it for the holidays. We can
make it a daily practice to say what we love about the day, about our
friends, about our work, or about our powerful land of Alaska.
I looked back at
Grandmother Singing Waters and realized what I really love about
Elders is how they truly know how to listen and receive others. This
is why in native cultures, children are taught spiritual teachings by
the Elders rather than their parents.
I realized how empowered
I always feel when someone truly receives me, my words, my gifts and
my medicine work. I
always thank my clients for allowing me to share my gifts with them.
In order for others to have this same pleasure, I need to receive them
also. It was all starting
to make more sense.
As
if Grandmother Singing Waters were reading my mind, she concluded.
“When you learn to receive, then you will know the sheer bliss of
who you really are: a vessel of the Creator’s Light.
Remember, it is better to receive then
to give.”
White
Eagle Medicine Woman
(Suraj Holzwarth) is the director and DrumKeeper of the International
GrandMother Drum Peace Project, and founder/director of The Whirling
Rainbow Foundation and Rainbow Fire Dream Institute in Palmer.
Contact: 907-745-5636 or thewhirlingrainbowfoundation@gmail.com.
