110 NATURE-BASED EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY
To the sound of bare feet
Coming near
The words touch the place
Where the dark eyes soften
You are welcome here
He said
Come to the front
Where you can see well
This is sacred
Not a curiosity for tourists.
Sally Atkins (2005)DAILY RITUAL
Amy Walker is an elder and wisdom keeper of the Eastern Band
of the Cherokee. As a speaker in our classes, Amy often reminded
us of the importance of creating meaningful personal rituals in our
own lives. A simple daily ritual that she suggested was to splash cold
water on our faces four times in order to remind ourselves that we
are part of the larger world. We are always located within the four
cardinal directions of east, south, west and north, and we are made
of the associated elements of air, water, fire and earth. As with Annie
Kahn, Amy’s message was to find our place again and again within
the larger context of the world. For many years Amy led the women’s
sweat lodge ceremony in Cherokee each week. The sweat lodge was
not originally part of the Cherokee practices, but many native tribes
share practices and traditions freely with one another as well as with
outsiders. In a discussion after the ceremony one of the students
asked her how she could lead a sweat lodge and at the same time
serve as an elder in the local Lutheran Church. She responded simply
that when you are a spiritual person, the form doesn’t matter. She
paused, and then continued, “You can get to a place where you can
just love.”