Chapter 33 A Bit of Background — from my book Changes

Chapter 33

A Bit of Background

I was raised by open minded parents.  My dad was one of four boys whose parents ran a tavern / candy store.  His mom once said that her boys were the best dressed street urchins in town.  At times, when he was a child, my dad stayed with his uncle who also owned a tavern, and dad would tap dance for the clientele while his uncle passed the hat so dad could have some spending money.

My mom was raised by parents who homesteaded 40 acres in Colton but lived in Woodburn while she was little, in a little house her dad built .  When she was in college, her dad sold the trees on his property to pay for her to go to school to become a registered nurse.

My dad and mom joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when I was two years old, so that became my religious upbringing.

My dad loved to read to us kids.  Whether is was an occasional evening of scripture reading or the many weeks he read The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy (us kids made him skip the long songs because they were boring to us), we loved hearing him tell us the stories.  He also loved to read us The Jack Tales; a collection of stories about Jack (same Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk I think).

My mom loved to read to us in the summertime when we were home from school.  While sitting next to her when we were little, she read us the Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes.  Later, when we were a little older, she read the Uncle Remus stories as well as Tom Sawyer.

When I was older, my dad and I both read, on our own but together, the series of books written by Carlos Castaneda.  We discussed spiritual things, energy, and the unseen and eternal.  We tried to control our dreams and spirit walk.

When I started going to Trackerschool, I was pleasantly surprised at how well Grandfather Stalking Wolf’s philosophy dovetailed with everything I had previously been taught, both within my religion and outside it.  That made sense considering that Grandfather’s philosophy was distilled down between all the religions and spiritual leaders of the tribes he visited and learned from, to be only the common thread.

One of the most basic things Tom Brown taught us in Philosophy class is that everyone is spiritual.  In fact, everything is spiritual.  You don’t have to be righteous to be spiritual.  We are all spiritual because we all live in the spiritual worlds as well as in the physical world, just as all physical things live in all those worlds.

What we choose to do, learn about, and use, is up to us.  There are powerful people who are aware of their spirituality who follow the light, and there are powerful people who are aware of their spirituality who follow the darkness.  Being in the physical world is the most powerful place we can be right now, because we exist in the physical as well as the spiritual worlds.

Prayer is one way we can set into motion the spiritual world around us.  Since we are living in the physical world, we get to make the choices for the physical world.  The spiritual worlds will help us when we ask, but will stand back and let us fumble around on our own if we choose to go it alone.

I’ve learned to actually ask for help when I need it.  If I have lost track of my purse (which seems to happen a lot) or my keys, or other things, I can look and look without finding what I am looking for.  I can even say, “I can’t find my purse,” and because I haven’t asked for help, I am on my own.  But when I ask out loud, “Where is my purse?” Then my head will turn and I will see it, or I will just feel like going into the room where it is and find it easily.

The help we can get from the unseen and eternal is amazing.

Once, I met up with my husband at the thrift store in Cottage Grove, OR because he lost his keys and wanted me to help him find them.  I met him there and he was pulling everything out of the car looking for them.  He had been in the store, and already looked there, but didn’t think he lost them there.  I decided to go into the store and just look around.  I quietly said a little prayer, asking for help to find the keys.  I noticed a comfy looking couch and I went over and sat down to relax for a minute.  Then for no good reason, and without thinking, I bent forward and looked under the couch, and there were the keys!

I had no reason to go sit on that couch other than I just felt like it.  I had no reason to look under the couch because I wasn’t even thinking the keys would be there.

Over time I have learned to trust the help that is given and I have developed such a love for the unseen world that surrounds me.  What a comfort it is to be watched over and taken care of.