Every day is a chance to weave spiritual connection into my life. Once a year, I also create a formal ceremony with the intention of renewing my spiritual commitment. This ceremony is a time to recognize and honor the gifts I have been given, the wisdom and tools that are carrying me on my path. It is a time to recognize and honor my ancestors, all of those who have gone before to make my path possible. It is a time to commit to a future of learning and growth and faith.

For many years I have created this ceremony on Spring Equinox, at home around the ancestral portal of a campfire. This year we had a big winter, however, and in late March the fire ring was still buried under several feet of snow. A ceremony inside just wouldn’t have the same vibration. So I waited.

A wonderful opportunity presented itself last weekend with an Elder’s Pow Wow at Gichi Onigaming. I cleansed myself and prayed at home. Then I went to pow wow and prayed and danced there. It felt right to be quietly making my commitment among friends and acquaintances. It was an honor and a joy to be there and be part of the living circle.

The drum is a circle. The drummers sit in a circle. The drum is the hub of a great wheel which the dancers move around and around, turning the wheel of life. The People who are seated, who are not dancing, create a circle of support around the dancers and the drums, echoing the vibration of the circle. The community is a circle around the pow wow. The earth is a circle holding the community. All of these circles are energy ripples in a pond, begun with the first drumstick touching the drum, and continuing to reverberate through hearts and minds and bodies over the hours of the pow wow and beyond.

I have been refreshed and inspired by this experience. I have a renewed understanding of my place in the Universe and the work which is happily before me. My work involves promotion of the Teachers’ transmissions, of course, but it also includes everyday connection with both the human and non-human world, and the directive to joyfully participate in the gift which is my time in this physical presence. Chi Miigwech!