A Matter of Language

On my recent visit to Arizona/Mexico I was awakened to the power of language when I met an Aztec man, Netse, 70, and his 20 yr old son. Both are descendants of the Mesheeka people, indigenous to the Arizona/Mexico lands. It was interesting and heartbreaking to find out that even though Netse still spoke the languages of their ancestors that his youngest son could not speak any.The son shared that it was a sacrifice they had to make so that he could get an education in English and learn in the same way many other children around the world were learning.

Sometimes I wonder if it's such a bad thing that people around the world are losing their language and culture and instead adopting a global language that increases communication? Or is it just another form of control and cultural hegemony? As always there are many sides to a story and multiple ways of looking at things.

When I look at my own life, I'm thankful that I speak a language unique to my people. When I speak my language I feel connected to my people and the people that were before my time and to those who will come after me. It's also a feeling of pride and being unique in an age that can easily be cookie-cutter monotonous. It's so hard to think that one day I could very well be one of the last speakers of my language. Netse said it best, 'there are certain things that just cannot be expressed in English...'

~Love God,Live life,One Enkounter at a Time~

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A Matter of Time

I don't think it's any coincidence that God's time seems to be the theme for this month. There just always seems to be a time line involved in everything we want to get done. Anyway, as my birthday is fast approaching I've been spending time reflecting, going through pictures, reading my journals just really reflecting to get some perspective. What was interesting was that while going through the journal I just happened to buck up this to-do list...yea...one of those goal to-do lists where I need to do x by y time . Funnily, the list was written back in 2006 and it had check boxes placed next to the goals. I noticed that at least 3 boxes were still not ticked at the time, while others were ticked and dated...and now for the surprise the unchecked were: 1. Become a lacto-ovo vegetarian 2. Go Natural and 3. Something else that I can't quite remember now.. . It was very funny to me, as reading it marked the 8th day since I had gone vegan with no desire for mea...

The Driveway : Another Dream

After posting the last post I made about time , I went to sleep and once again had a strange dream. I have since been contemplating what to make of this dream. I mean how and when can we really ever tell when a dream is just a dream or a vision or even worse a warning? Last night I must have had a lengthy dream but what I can remember is being at this place, I am not sure where it was, but in my mind it seemed to be at this specific house. The house where my grandmother used to live in Frankfield. It somehow seemed different though as there were scores of strange people mulling about and as the stretch of land to get down from the road to the house...the 'driveway', had steps instead of stones and seemed much longer and steeper. What is even more strange was that people drove down the steps and there were three (3) vehicles down in the yard (bear in my mind that in reality the front and side yard of that house has no space for vehicles and vehicles have never been down there as...

Believe

A thought came to me today while visiting a family member's church and hearing the age old and simple message of salvation. The thought was about the basic principle of 'belief' which is a principle of both the physical world and the spiritual world. For example, in the physical world we prepare for the next day believing we will live to experience it. We plant and nurture flowers believing they will grow. We board a plane believing the pilot/plane will get us to our destinations safely and so on. Similarly in the Christian faith, in order to have a relationship with God we must believe. There are at least 36 bible verses referencing belief. Top of the list is that we must believe that Jesus Christ existed, died on the cross for our sins and is our ultimate connection to God. We must believe all of these things that we've never seen in order to have a relationship with God - hence why Christians are also called Believers. I was reflecting on how much...

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