The Give Away: Learning from Buffalo
A story about experiences working the annual buffalo roundup at Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve.

Buffalo Dreaming: Lakota Spirituality in the 21st Century
A sharing of stories and lessons learned over 10 years on the Red Road.
Part 1 (116 k .pdf)
Part 2 (164 k .pdf)

I remember
Buffalo Dreaming

Roaming the Plains
On four legs
With Thundering hooves
In Days long gone

I can still Feel
My Buffalo Heart
Beating,
Beating

I can still Feel
My Buffalo Lungs
Breathing,
Breathing

When I close my eyes
I can see
The Buffalo Eyes
Looking into my Soul

I remember
Giving Away
To feed the people,
My spiritual Gift,
The Ultimate Sacrifice

And still
My Buffalo Heart
Is beating

There is a place upon this Earth where the scar of Man is unseen. Scoff if you will, for you can't believe, but I will show 'tis true. For in this place, so close at hand, Man appears to be as the mountains do to you and me.

Come, come closer, down here with me, see the wonders you can see.

Below the sky, beneath the tree, part the blades of grass. Upon the soil I bid you gaze -- the entrance to another World.

See, an ant. And now one smaller. A tiny spider dwarfed by a pin point, almost too small to see.

And as you gaze upon the tiny, their World draws you in. Soon the smallest ant seems huge, the lawn a thick unexplored jungle. To this World, Man is just the terrain, another mountain to traverse.

Returning to the "real" World of everyday, perhaps you can remember this World, Invisible but to the closest look, yet around us all along.

So remember your place before you act, out of tune throughout. Remember and be humbled, for we are infinitely smaller than the tiniest ant on Earth when compared to the Universal Whole. No more, and no less, important.

When
did we lose touch
with Nature?

Perhaps
it was
when we built Churches

Safe boxes to worship in

Walls
to keep the Others out
the Unbelievers at bay

I will worship
in the Meadows

I will pray
in the Woods

I will cry on the Hilltop

Recognizing
the Creator's spark
in the change of Seasons
in the Sun and Stars
in the Thunderstorm

Understanding
that all of the Creation
is Sacred

I Feel
the Heartbeat
of my Grandmother
Everywhere

Here I pray:
May those who walk here
feel the sacredness
of this Land

May they glean
a single spark
of Understanding
of the Sacredness
of all Creation.

Back at the trailhead,
I empty my pockets
of the litter
I stooped to pick up
again
and
again
and
again