We were graced with Ilarion time and knowledge in this podcast with Professor Christian. He was able to share his childhood, right and wrong and heart knowledge. How his beliefs and up bringing bridged into his adult life and career. How he fixed problems with talking circles and how the elders play such a huge role in the culture and community. This blog a little over an hour had changed a few of my thoughts on parenting and how important it is to listen, really listen to people.
Pictures are from Canvas SWK course and google.
Ilarion tells a story about being little and stealing $20 from his grandfather and headed down to a government run store. $20 when he was a child was equivalent to a year’s wages for an indigenous person back in the day. He found a toy plane he wanted, and he was around the age of nine. He talks about how his aunt just happened to be in the store and noticed the purchase. She was waiting outside for him. In my mind, I Invision an attack of his actions. I would expect that the aunt would corner him and lecture about stealing. Make a whole ordeal and bring him straight to the grandfather to right his wrongs. Except in their culture that is not how they parent. Would not call it gentle parenting but they gave children space, and the chance to learn right and wrong. She questioned him on where he got the money. Then she asked him, “what is your next step, plan”. She didn’t make him return the plane. She did not lecture him or belittle him. She had an open discussion and let him choose the next step. Ilarion returns the plane and hands the $20 back over to his grandfather and tells on himself. The grandfather says, “Good Boy”. Ilarion learns a valuable lesson that day on stealing and the percussions on it. I learned that children making mistakes is going to happen, my reaction to these cases is important. How we choose to teach and spread knowledge is important.
Eagle Wings
Grandmother Rita Pickler Blumenstein to Ilarion. She presented him with a whole wing from an Eagle. She explained, this is only half and soon you will get your other half because you need two wings to fly. One wing represents Physical and the other represents Spiritual, one represents feminine and the other masculine. You need two wings to fly. Ilarion received the second wing almost a year later by a Lakota medicine man. Ilarion had to find peace in himself and be able to connect his heart to his head and lead in this form. This is a beautiful representation on how it’s important to have all the elements to be flowing and flying through life. He has the wings displayed on his door in the podcast.
” The definition of real human is someone present in the moment and the heart.” by Ilarion
The elders from all over the world met up at a conference, sharing ceremonies, stories and teachings. Aligning views on the culture and how we can create harmony among the lands. The biggest question was, “what is the state of the world as we see it now?”
What is your answer? How did we get here? How do we educate ourselves and move forward in a positive light? Curious to see your ideas on this question.
“The message from the elders is that we’ve reversed the laws for living and that it is time now to correct that so that we change our conscience from the mind to and the heart will tell your mind what need to do during this time.” Ilarion
I enjoy our class and the discussion we have. We have heard our professor speak of talking circles and how important it is to do. Never understood what they are, or what the intel. This podcast explained in great depth the importance of talking circles and how we can benefit from it.
Essentially everyone gathers in a circle. Ground rules are laid out, no interruptions, no fighting, not trying to persuade your outcome. Everyone just speaks their truths until everyone is on the same page.
“Talking circles can be used for discussion, problem solving, and/or decision making. The basic purpose of a talking circle is to create a safe, non-judgmental place where each participant has the opportunity to contribute to the discussion of difficult and/or important issues.“
heartland.edu/documents/idc/talkingcircleclassroom.pdf
Ian Miller
Hi Christine! I loved this podcast and have actually been recommending it to friends and family. The message of bringing ourselves back to living within our hearts and quieting down our minds is very alluring, but for some reason it is not easily accepted by people. My partner brings with her a life previously engulfed in the Christian community, and I talk with her frequently about this topic and she gives me examples of how the bible actually tells us that our hearts are not to be trusted and that it will lead us astray. Here is a link of some biblical quotes that are highlighted specifically regarding “following our hearts” https://www.gotquestions.org/follow-your-heart.html.
In my mind, I see a need for balance. A heart that runs wild without reason can definitely get you lost, similarly a mind without a heart is nothing more than a machine. Personally, I would much rather be lost in my feelings than lost in my thoughts because I do align with the idea that our feelings are our primal conscience, they are what is us at our very core.
I appreciate that you spoke about Ilarion’s experience with taking money and buying the toy plane. That made me reflect on my childhood soooo much and all the times that I got in trouble for doing dumb kid things. My least favorite question when I got in trouble as a kid was, “what were you thinking?”. Uhm, I was thinking I am a kid and I am going to do kid things, very little thought was involved. But those moments were lost opportunities for my parents to meet me where I was and help me figure out that I did not want to behave in those ways.
Anyways… thank you for the wonderful blog and insights. Last thought, I too have enjoyed this class and its introduction to talking circles and how helpful they can be.
Christine Ryan
Ian thanks for your response. I checked out that website and those biblical quotes. That would be a wonderful thing to bring up in a talking circle and had me putting extra thought behind the heart and the mind.
You are right about asking the children, “What are you thinking”. Today I about said that to my five-year-old, took a breath, and asked different questions. Let them tell their story and how they can fix it. I love all the symbolism and the rich culture that Ilarion shares with us in the podcast.