In this modern day world, everything seems to be fast paced, perfectionistic and unforgiving. Those who are not a size 8 are mercilessly ridiculed and discriminated against. Racism and hate crimes. Destruction and chaos. Kids killing each other and their parents. Parents killing their kids. Wives being beaten into submission. Husbands being cheated on or used and killed for money. Women being raped and children being mutilated (circumcisions).

Brother against brother … or sister. Mothers and daughters at war. Fathers and sons at war. Families and whole societies torn apart. Homelessness and crime, drugs and pollution. When will it all end? What can we do about it? Is there a solution?

Personally, I think the solution lies in returning to our origins, our roots. I don’t mean going back to the racist, chauvinistic society of the 50’s. I am talking about more ancient roots. Our very beginnings. I think that there is where we will find the solutions to today’s problems.

I am presently reading Walking on the Wind: Cherokee Teachings for Harmony and Balance by Michael Garrett and I highly recommend it to all people (whether Cherokee or not). It speaks of some simple truths.

In it, Mr. Garrett talks about how we are all a part of the "Circle of Life". We are all important to this circle. No one is better ... or worse than anyone else. What a concept, huh? Try telling that to the President or to Donald Trump or Bill Gates or others in positions of power and authority. What would it be like if we looked on others as human beings instead of as idols or monsters? Could we really do it?

One example that Mr. Garrett used was the story of a Lakota family who lost their loved one to a murder. They were all outraged...as would we all be...and, just like us, were looking for revenge, for the destruction of the person who murdered their loved one. Now everyone I have seen so far here in America would react the same way. "Get him!", "Kill him!", "Destroy him!", "Hanging/ the electric chair/whatever is too good for him!".

But what if we followed the example that the Lakota elder set? Instead of seeking the destruction of this individual, he suggested a "better way". His solution for punishing this individual for "...the gross violation...of our pride and honour" (as he put it) was as follows:

"Each of you (the family) bring the thing that you prize the most. These things shall be a token of our intentions. We shall give them to the murderer who has hurt us, and he shall become a relative in place of him who is gone. And from now on, he shall become one of us and our endless concern shall be to regard him as though he were truly our loved one come back to us." - taken from Bendtro, Brokenleg, and Van Brockern, Reclaiming Youth at Risk

How many of us can actually find the forgiveness, wisdom and courage to do that to someone who has taken the life of someone we love? What if we all had the courage to look beyond our pain and to do what is right for everyone involved, to look beyond ourselves and consider the welfare of the Circle of Life?

This is Winterhawk and these are just some Things to Ponder.