Lest We Forget How This Great Experiment Started.

My friend Beth Trissel wrote today,

" In these troubled times in America, it’s wise to remember where we came from  and what our founders envisioned for this great nation. Being an American is a sacred privilege, our hard-won freedoms, fast eroding, should never be taken for granted, and preserving these inalienable rights, a call to arms for all who cherish liberty. " (There is much more that she said... Please read her fill blog at: https://bethtrissel.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/lest-we-forget-beth-trissel/#comment-10246 )

So well said my friend.
I can only offer this bit of wisdom that has stood my test of faith…
“The greatest of the many freedoms… is FREEDOM itself.
I choose THAT Freedom… to choose what I know is best, not using my heart, but using my G-D given brain to make that right choice.
Like our founders, I choose Freedom over government. I choose Freedom over fear.
I choose, as the great Shawnee War Chief Tecumseh said, “I am the maker of my own destiny.” I choose like my ancestors, FREEDOM! Anything else is not Freedom, but slavery by degrees.
Our founders knew this, we have forgotten their lessons.
FREEDOM:
1. The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.
2. Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. The power to determine action without restraint.
4. Political or national independence.
5. Personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/freedom

The choice is always ours, remember how it all started, and keep on message... 
“The greatest of the many freedoms… is FREEDOM itself. 

Respectfully, another Shawnee patriot,
Jim Great Elk Waters

Jim Great Elk Waters 32°/SK                                                                           
    the Appalachian American Indian Dream Master-come Dream with me                         
        Cambridge Who’s Who among Professionals and Entrepreneurs
          Author101University Alumni
            ...and an Official 2012 Global eBook Awards Judge       

Going the Extra Mile will Get You Even Farther

My friend Jack Canfield (see bottom) included this article in his August Newsletter. Such Great information. Enjoy. The elk

Going the Extra Mile will Get You Even Farther

Are you someone who consistently goes the extra mile and routinely over delivers on your promises?

It's rare these days, but it's the hallmark of high achievers who know that exceeding expectations helps you stand above the crowd. Almost by force of habit, successful people simply do more.

As a result, they experience not only greater financial rewards for their extra efforts but also a personal transformation, becoming more self-confident, more self-reliant, and more influential with those around them.

These high achievers stand out from the crowd because of their extra efforts. They are unwilling to give up, even in the face of difficult times.

They get the promotions, they get the loyal customers, they grow their businesses twice as fast, they get financial rewards, job security, and they go home feeling satisfied.

Do you exceed expectations?

Do you surprise people with more than they were expecting from you?

Do you have the opportunity - but also the personal initiative - to go the extra mile?

To be successful you must change your thinking. You can only win by making extra efforts. People who go the extra mile always get payback. You will discover yourself becoming more self-confident, more self-reliant and more influential with those around you.

People notice the special services and all the small touches that make dealing with you so pleasurable. And when they are talking to their friends they will mention you and recommend you because you are the one who stands out.

People will see that you pay attention to detail, that you consider all the small things that really make a business successful, that you care about your image, and that you belong with all the other people who work hard to achieve. You will attract new business and new opportunities.

Listen to any success story and you will hear of someone who worked exceptionally hard to get what they wanted.

You’ll hear how they put in the extra time, did what wasn’t part of their job description, and over-delivered on what was asked of them. You’ll hear how they stuck at it until they broke through, and usually you’ll hear how it only took them a couple of years to do it.

What have you been doing for the past couple of years? Think of what you could accomplish if you made it a habit to exceed everyone’s expectations. Image what doors could be open to you if you decided to be of better service and value.

How are you willing to go the extra mile? What kind of extra service are you willing to provide in order to stand out from the rest? What areas of your life could you be giving more of your effort and time, becoming more valuable, and improving your reputation?

Be willing to treat everyone like you’d treat your dearest friend. Don’t skimp on service. Don’t be mediocre or run of the mill. Show people what you are capable of. Show them that you care about your image and reputation.

When it comes to success, the people who are willing to go the extra mile get there that much faster!

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WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete statement with it: Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com 

To Know The Depths of Love for This Beloved Country

Watching the marvelous fireworks and listening to the sound track of the many talented artists and composers... as the Marines say, "My eyeballs got sweaty." With all this outpouring of love for our country by so many, over the last 236 years... I know the depths of my love for this beloved country. It became crystal clear... if one doesn't love our America to the point of tears of pride, one hasn't yet grown enough to appreciate what it really means to be a citizen of the United States of America. Real men cry and real American's know why. G-d Bless America.

To the Question - Are you a Half-breed?

Am I a Half-breed?
Yes, but why is that important to you?
Most people today are aware that that term deemed offensive to the many who espouse political correctness. I never believed that mob rule could change anyone’s heartfelt thoughts. Long ago I dismissed the irrelevant emotional reaction to any word or words considered offensive, as actually being odious. Unless they were intended to be insulting or provocative, I take them in the context that they were offered.

 That said, there is more to the answer. If I were of one thirty second or one quarter American Indian heritage, would that be different? Is the 1800’s stereotype concept of “blood quantum” so important when identifying my “Indian-ness?”

 The answers to all these questions are both yes, and no.

First lets address the “no” response.

Either you are descended from the First Parents, or you are not. If you are, then this conversation is mute. Among my People there is a Spirit of Connection that bonds many of us as Indians. It is a bond that is unique among these People. It is intangible but its manifestation is palatable. We know without speaking, that another is of America’s First People. That Spirit is undeniable. As the Cherokee say, “If you have a drop of Cherokee blood in you, you are Cherokee.” It all about the ancestry of a person, not their percentage of birthright.

We all descend from a tribe or First People, somewhere. The question is of Indian-ness. Do you have to be descended from an indigenous elder to be actually a Native American. Without question, it speaks to the origination of a ethnicity, not a “feeling” that one believes.
But to speak to the “Yes’ position.

Others, mostly citizens of Federally Recognized Tribes, are strong in their conviction that the “Biblical begets” linage, as defined in their various tribal laws, are the rule and guide of heritage, not any ancient connection. This is the age old turf battles of fiefdoms and bailiwicks. In many cases these same people are willing to cast off their descendents as non-Indian, simply because they no longer meet the minimum Tribal standards. One wonders how they will answer to their Ancestors upon passing thru the Veil?

Traditionally, nearly all Native American People were inclusive in their extended families… after all, that is really what tribes are, extended families. I was not until the wars and conquest of these indigenous people and the subsequent regulations set down by the victorious United States Government, that our People were divided in this manner. This is the result of President Andrew Jackson’s iniquitous position, that of the elimination of the “Red Problem.”

 The Red Problem of the government has now become the problem of Native Americans. We are divided by the military dictum of divide and conquer.

 How sad. As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Are you a Half-breed?
Of course, aren’t we all?

The adulteration of all original ancestral ethnic linage is universal,
All two-leddeds (humans) are today, descended from multiple ethnicties.
We are all Half-breeds.

Why is this all important?

It isn’t.

Deep in Our Centerplace

Deep in Our Centerplace

Jim Great Elk Waters ©2012

An excerpt from the upcoming “The Mystic Medicine Lodge.”

Filled with answers to some of the most asked questions

about the First People’s Mystic Ways!

We must never forget that the weakest of our People are more important than the greatest of those beyond our circle. It is our job to protect and if necessary, carry them to the next place we as a People journey to. We are not Shawnee because we have a place, we are Shawandasse because we are the total sum of all the Ancestors that have come before us. Let us honor and respect each other as we do the Grandparents. Let us love each other as they love us, and let us be understanding and use the strength of each person’s fiber to reweave our blanket for the living Shawnee of now… just as our Ancestors have done for the millennium that have past before.

We are Blessed by Creator to know who we are. Let us never forget, or distort that Blessing into our individual vision. We do not have that right.

The vision that has kept the People of the Southwind alive throughout the hundreds of generations before us is that of Creator, not of man.

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Jim Great Elk Waters

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The Futility in Trying to Relive or Obliterate the Old Life

Contemplating Tradition
A series to challenge us as we contemplate our place in history.
By Jim Great Elk Waters©2012

“A human being is not a waxen rubbing, a lifeless imprint taken from some great stony face. Rather he is a … a dog soldier at liberty to use the inclinations of the past as he sees fit. He is free to perceive the matrix, and, within his limits, change from it. By seeing both the futility in trying to relive the old life and the danger in trying to obliterate it, man can gain the capacity to make anew. His very form depends not on repetition but upon variation from old patterns.
In response to stress, biological survival requires genetic change; it necessitates a turning away from doomed replication. And what of history? Was it different?

From Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon (Scot, Irish Osage)

I just finished reading this book, took a half year. Not my usual speed, but I savored it chapter at a time. It was not until I reached page 400 of 412 leaves did I realize why I had plowed through those nearly 200,00 words. It was to lead me to the quote above.
I have been trying to define how I felt about being Shawnee today. What are my traditions? Which from all history was I to follow? Which best fit the world we live in today? How did my great grandparents determine the good’way to live? How did they adapt the woven cloth, iron and wheel to the traditions of their grandparents? Am I to walk in their footsteps? Am I expected by them to move into each day in a new way? Is that day for me to replicate their way, or is it mine to live with my People now?

I realize now that our grandparents lived in the moment, and that they created their code of existence, their traditions from the fabrics and chards passed to them from their grandparents. Shawnee from first history changed and adapted life to the moment in which they lived. Their culture, tradition and lifestyle grew with each generation and were used as their tools to adapt to their day.
We too, as Shawnee in this time, need to use the traditions, the way of life and cultures that our grandparents gifted, us as tools to create anew the proper Indian’way for this generation. As Least Heat-Moon acknowledges, “By seeing both the futility in trying to relive the old life and the danger in trying to obliterate it, man can gain the capacity to make anew.” As he so wisely tomed, Our very form depends not on repetition but upon variation from old patterns. By this method we adapt the old to our needs… and yet do not disrespect the old’way. We must learn from the Elders that they personalized tradition for their time, and we are by their example, to adapt and grow in the light of our day. If we don’t we are doomed to be only a shadow of them, not the promise they expected… that we are their future.

The Romans held the phrase sacred, carpe diem… seize the day… grab hold of the clay of this day and temper it with that which the Ancestors gave us, to make the pots of this time the best Shawnee pots possible. Then we can stand as strong as did our grandparent’s grandparents. We must create anew for this time, the culture and traditions that made life good for us, as did those before us… and to make good temper materials for the children not yet born from the first clay. It is our job.

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Jim Great Elk Waters

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Thoughts on a Tattered Road Map Called My Life

Today I am setting at my desk with a monumental task

Soon the X on the calendar will mark the 69^th Circle of Seasons. There is no time for slowing down, or a comfy chair and lovely sunset…  I am at the peak of my creative drive.

As the kids say, “What’s with that… Seriously?”  Who knows?

In reflection I find that a great portion of the past squandered on things trivial and self indulgent. At this mile marker, there is an acute awareness that time is now finite, and my invincibility shield has some serious flaws developing. What? I’m no longer Captain America?

The old health, it is about as it should be, reflecting upon the abuse heaped upon this carcass the past three score and nine. Yet, upon reflection, I find an incredible list of experiences illustrating the joy of a life filled with great times, pathos and whimsy. Those who know, understand that I have wandered about in a epoch filled with Legion of adventures, that most only dream about.

No complaints.

The journey on this trail, is not near the Threshold of the Veil.

Therefore… I have chosen today to be the mark in time, when I create the goals that will place my course for the next 21 years. This will be a chore, for here is a lot yet to do. STOP… this not an average “mid life crisis syndrome,” trying to make up for time lost… that is impossible. This goal-setting is about getting real value from what remains.

Here is a sampling. There is the task of finishing over two dozen books and making them available as pBooks (books in print), aBooks (audio), eBooks (online), and some as DVD and CD’s for public consumption. 

“Why not just write them and let that be that,” you might ask?

Like so many “pre-Boomers,” we need income beyond our meager pensions. Thus the aforementioned are called in the business world… products. 

Beyond that, are planned a series of paintings and drawings, as well as over twenty fours, speaking presentations. These will be on subjects of my Native Heritage, life experiences, art, theater and film and TV. We can explore how the creative process works, it’s benefits and disabling qualities.

We have but scratched a peremptory mark upon the veil of our tomorrows. Only that time and place to come will reveal what will be next.

Yes, today is the day chosen for setting the course for the next score of years.   

I will keep you apprised of the progress.

Oh, why the “next 21 years…?”

Well a long time ago, when I was a lad of 4 or 5, my grandfather “Big Dad,” came to me and said, “Jimmie, I had a vision last night…. I was at your 100^th birthday party.”

“Oh wow,” I replied, “How old did I live to be?’

In a terse reply, “How the hell do I know, I didn’t vision that?”

My grandfather’s visions almost always came true. Taken from that exchange, I must assume that I will live to be at least one hundred years old. 

That is the “why” of this note to you my friends… Being yet moderately functional, I still have a fifth of my life ahead. 

It is my job to make it count...  Will you?

With love and respect, your humble servant, the elk

 Jim Great Elk Waters ©2012

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Jim Great Elk Waters

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