Intricate Web of Time and Spirit

Time is interesting. So is circumstance and outcome. One wish, another blessing. Ask for a loonie, get a toonie. Ask for a toonie and lose your wallet. Just when your ahead, your behind. Just when you think youve failed, you are reminded of victory. Life is strange and intricate. Its a weaving of blessings and curses. Anyway, I wont ramble about that.

If I knew then, what I know now, I would have camped at the Scollard Street Gallery to see this exhibition. Not only for the magnificence of the art, but for how powerfully the The Spirit speaks through these pieces of work. This would have been an opportuntiy to be messmerized by artistic beauty and flowing Spirit.

Well I didnt know then, what I know now yet I too was blessed by Spirit. I spent that particular weekend in the Temegami Forest. It was on that weekend, that my soul was moved to seek the way of the Anishinaabe...The First People. On that weekend I was invited to attend a changing of the seasons ceremony in the Temegami Old Growth. On that weekend, the Great Spirit was awakened in me.

While the Spirit was speaking through canvas on Scollard Street in Toronto, Spirit was speaking to my heart through the Temagami Old Growth. I did not know the Great Spirit at that time. Well, of course I did. I knew God and Christ and the Holy Spirit, but I had not yet been liberated or awakened to the fact that the Creator, Alpha, Omega, has many many names. Up until that time, I allowed myself to speak only of what I had been taught culturally.

I was introduced to the Great Spirit of the Anishinaabe by an Ojibway Elder. When I opened my heart and mind to the Great Spirit, I found it to be one and the same God. The Great Spirit was easy to embrace as I already had it within. The Great Spirit and the Holy Spirit are the same, though each has its own cultural background and theological ideas. When you cut out all the mumbojumbo you are left with a God who is manifested on this earth by Spirit. Thats how I know God. Spirit.

Since that weekend, I have devoted much time to the pursuit of this knowledge. To understanding Anishinaabe culture and how that relates to my own. In this time I have come to know God by many other names, through many other cultures. While the names change, the Great Spirit remains, hovering over the waters, yeilding and prompting hearts, directing the magnificent dream of Gitchi Manido.

Great Spirit,

I praise You with all of my heart.

My heart rejoices and You cause me to sing!

You cause me to love

and to seek You, oh God.

You reside in me

 and

give me strength

and

build my character.

You teach me the way of peace

and

cause me to hold out my hand.

You remind me of Your excellence

through the magnificence of Your creation

and

You give me a special place in Your creation.

Humbly I accept that place with gratitude

and lift my hands in adoration.