Prayers for Land and Life

Prayer for Land and Life

Imprints and patterns of evolving Species:

Plants, animals, insects, birds

Repeat generational cycles

As life force gives to the next generation;

Charting the way back to the very beginning

Connected to the changing land;

As our world revolves to the surrounding sky

The shimmering sun, sweet singing moon.

We gaze awestruck, with our ancestor’s eyes,

 Into the dazzling void of the universe.

Copyright T.Truesdale 2019

ToniTruesdale.com

Red Rain

 “It is prophesied in our instructions that the end of the world will be near when the trees start dying from the top down. That is what the maples are doing now. Our instructions say the time will come when there will be no corn,

when nothing will grow in the garden, when water will be unfit to drink.

In our ways, spiritual consciousness is the highest form of politics. We must live in harmony with the natural world and recognize the excessive exploitation can only lead to our destruction. We cannot trade the welfare of our future generations for profit now…

We are instructed to carry love for one another, and to show great respect for all beings of the earth. We must stand together, the four colors of man,

as the one family we are. In the interest of peace.

We must abolish nuclear and conventional weapons of war.

We must raise leaders of peace.

We must unite the religions of the world as a spiritual force

strong enough to prevail in peace.

We (Human Beings) are a positive energy that is a thousand times

 stronger than nuclear energy.

Our energy is the combined will of all people with the spirit of the natural world, to be of one body, one heart, and one mind for peace”

- The late Leon Shenandoah, Onondaga

“We are now living in the fourth and final world of the Hopi. We are now at a most critical time in Human history. It is a crossroads at which the outcome of our actions will decide the fate of all life on earth”

- Martin Gashweseoma, Hopi

Quotes thanks to Akwesasne Notes

Grandmothers Prayer

“Spirits of the sun, of the moon, of the stars,

of the seas, of the mountains, of the Earth,

of forests, of air, of thunder, of water, of the spirit of fire,

and of our ancestors-help us.

Watch over our Earth, watch over our progeny.

Awaken in our hearts tolerance and unity...”

-Grandmother’s Prayer/ Agnes Pilgrim

The sacred stories return to us to honor all living things

White Buffalo Woman

by Toni Truesdale

The White Buffalo Woman of the Lakota Sioux

Brought the message of hope

With instructions on living to the people.

Millions of the great animal lived on the western plains;

The buffalo provided sustenance and survival.

Nearly extinct by white marksman

Who slaughtered them  “for sport”’

The buffalo were left laying in the sun, rotting

Hundreds at a time.

We need to be reminded today;

The sacredness of balance.

Is in the connection of all living things.

To take only what is needed;

Precious, is each life.

Use it with reverence.

And, think of the environment

As your family

And give thanks...

Copyright 1983

ToniTruesdale.com

Celebration

Sugar

by Toni Truesdale

Celebrate overcoming the past

All People of Color

Is it freedom at last?

We begin each morning

Sweetening our cups of coffee and tea;

With sugar refined as

White as history;

Trying hard to distance itself

From the memory

Of genocide and slavery.

Now In the beautiful, warm vacation seas.

Shanty towns and the company store

Create the stillness of poverty;

The Eden now cleared of Native Peoples

And the terrorized Africans

Overworked and disposed before 30.

All to create fortunes for entitled families.

Money from death and misery, bleached

Pure by virtuous European banks;

In a society where income is so esteemed

It became the western hierarchy of ruling currency.

Celebrate overcoming the past,

Where all people are valued at last.

Celebrate the yet to come;

Where full freedom is finally won.

Dedicated to the late Reverand William Potter

Truesdale copyright 2011

Together woman can Protect the future generations: Circle Dance

“Circle Dance”

by Toni Truesdale

Many ceremonies all over the world are danced in a circle.

In the northern hemisphere people dance counterclockwise.

In the southern hemisphere people dance clockwise.

We all follow the rhythms of the earth

.

The drumbeat is the heart of the great mother, ancestress of all life.

All people have danced in this way at one time.

We all share a humanity and one inter-tribal world.

The races of women join together to preserve and protect the world as we know it

For our children and grandchildren into our shared future.

ToniTruesdale.com

Copyright T. Truesdale 2013

testimony of the stones

Standing Stones at Kinnell

For over 5000 years this stone circle

Stands sentry to the largest Loch in Scotland;

In turn feeds the Great River Tay to the east,

And the cascading River Dochart to the west.

Nestled between the mountains of

Gron a Clahan and Beinn Leabhamn

Standing still in an open prayer.

Copyright 2019 T. Truesdale

ToniTruesdale.com