International Dance

Hello to all Metis,

I am R Two Bears aka Rocco Tedesco and am interested in making an event for all Metis. We as a People of Aboriginal Descent, have been left lost in the History Books. Governments have done as they pleased with our rights as Aboriginals and left us out of the loop for recognition and freedom.

I am writing this to see if other Metis are feeling the same as I and My People do. If so, I propose there be a International Dance to bring about the results and education of Nations as to our plight and lost rights.

Back in the 19th century there was a "Ghost Dance" performed by most if not all the First Nation People of the U S and Canada to bring back the honor, ancestors, Spiritual Losses, and the Basic nature of the Indian People. We need the same. I would not venture to call this dance and gathering a Ghost Dance but I do believe there is a Name for the Spirit Recovery and International/National recognition we have lost in the past. If there is any group out there who feels the same, please respond to the Post or pass this along to other Metis Groups.

Maybe by working together, we can cause the Spirit of our People to rise up and make us known.

Megwich,
R Two Bears Elder

A Warrior’s Challenge

The most important relationship we have in our lives is with our selves. And even though we are the only ones who are present at every moment of our lives—from birth onward—this relationship can be the most difficult one to cultivate. This may be because society places such emphasis on the importance of being in a romantic partnership, even teaching us to set aside our own needs for the needs of another. Until we know ourselves, however, we cannot possibly choose the right relationship to support our mutual growth toward our highest potential. By allowing ourselves to be comfortable with being alone, we can become the people with whom we want to have a relationship.

Perhaps at no other time in history has it been possible for people to survive, and even thrive, while living alone. We can now support ourselves financially, socially, and emotionally without needing a spouse for survival in any of these realms. With this freedom, we can pursue our own interests and create fulfilling partnerships with friends, business partners, creative cohorts, and neighbors. Once we’ve satisfied our needs and created our support system, a mate then becomes someone with whom we can share the bounty of all we’ve created and the beauty we’ve discovered within ourselves.

As we move away from tradition and fall into more natural cycles of being in the world today, we may find that there are times where being alone nourishes us and other periods in which a partnership is best for our growth. We may need to learn to create spaces to be alone within relationships. When we can shift our expectations of our relationships with ourselves and others to opportunities for discovery, we open ourselves to forge new paths and encounter uncharted territory. Being willing to know and love ourselves, and to find what truly makes us feel deeply and strongly, gives us the advantage of being able to attract and choose the right people with whom to share ourselves, whether those relationships fall into recognizable roles or not. Choosing to enjoy being alone allows us to fully explore our most important relationship—the one with our true selves. In knowing our “self”, we have concord our worst enemy and created our best friend.

Metis History

The history of the Metis in North America is clouded by too much speculation and not enough solid information. I have just received a research text from a graduate student in B.C. Canada. Having just started the book, I hope to clarify the misinformation rolling about in cyberspace. Starting with the references, I will load the information as I can verify it through her reference material. This book is concentrating on the Northwest Metis. I am also using the records of Fort Vancouver in Washington State, to give a local accounting about H.B.C. and the Metis in the years between 1830 and 1850. I will also take any information on the Metis from all over the U.S. and Canada. Anyone can help in this endeavor.

The Mind Follows No Time Line

Try to learn something new this week. This keeps our energy active which affects not only you, but those around you as well.


The talents that intrigue us the most oftentimes seem to exist just outside the reach of our grasp, even though we are all capable of mastering new crafts and skills. Life has a tendency to intervene in our best-laid plans, and it is easy to sacrifice a dream when facing unrelated obligations. We may also feel that we are too set in our ways to absorb fresh skills or that doing so would ultimately prove a valueless undertaking. However, learning is, first and foremost, an exercise of the mind. To learn, we must first truly believe we can learn and that the abilities we gain as a result will serve to enrich our lives. Once we do, we discover that education and practice inspire us and awaken us to a whole new range of possibilities.

When you challenge yourself by committing to master a new pursuit, you affirm your belief that neither chronology nor fear need be an impediment to your growth. You comprehend the value of learning, the interest it adds to your day-to-day experiences and the creativity it inspires within you. Being a beginner can be hard, and you may find yourself tempted to give up, but try not to let yourself become self-conscious. If you are revisiting an activity you enjoyed in childhood, you may take in information more slowly than you once did or you may pick it up again like it was yesterday. The simple fact that you are pursuing a path because you want to, means that your determination will give you the strength to cope with any difficulties. Your ability to work toward an goal will be heightened by your sincere desire to grow as an individual.

Try learning something new this week. What have you always wanted to do? Take a dance class, learn to sail, knit a sweater, sculpt—whatever you choose, your life will be enriched with fun, new friends and the pride of trying something new.

A Lessom from Peter

I can summarize what we can learn from Peter’s 3 denials that he knew Jesus in 3 sentences. The first sentence is: “Life is filled with broken promises.”

The 2nd sentence is: “Even knowing of so many broken promises, most of us spend significant time & energy choosing to do good anyway.”

The 3rd sentence… well, I’ve changed my mind about giving you the 3rd sentence. I’m not going to tell you that one after all. What can I say?” Life is filled with broken promises deal with it.”

Everywhere we turn in the material world we can see broken promises. Instead of hope, we are given hurt.
Instead of love we are handed fear. Instead of community we can find ourselves in isolation.
& I know that there are many outside these walls, in our own families, our friends & coworkers & others who face broken promises in far greater magnitude than you or I do.

As a response to this reality, I’d like to tell you 4 stories.



The first story is about 2 little boys. Their father was a truck driver. He was left to care for them one evening when he had to go down to the trucking company to unload & fill out the customary paper work. While the father unloaded, the boys had fallen asleep in the cab & when he had to go into the office to complete the papers, concerned with leaving the sleeping children visible in the cab, he carried the boys to the back of the empty truck, laid them on cargo blankets, closed the door. As fate would have it, the boys woke up & found themselves alone & trapped in a strange, dark place. The younger of the 2 boys was filled with panic. He couldn’t even see his brother in the dark. “Doug, are you here?” he asked. “I’m here,” came the response.

Left alone, feeling abandoned, cast out on their own, the 4 year old turned to his 5-year-old brother & asked, “So, what do we do now?” “I guess we’ll have to find a place to live,” was the response. But they both realized that this would require money, so the talk turned to what kind of jobs they could get. “What can you do?” the younger asked. “I think I could probably cut people’s grass,” the older replied. The younger felt a new sense of dread realizing that he didn’t know how to cut grass & he couldn’t think of anything he could do to make any money at all. Sensing his little brother’s anxiety the older said ,“You can help me.”

But that was, essentially, the extent of their plan – their entire hope for the future – hung on the possibility that they could cut someone’s grass. Not the way either of them thought their life would go. “Life is filled broken promises.”

The world never did find out if they could make a living cutting grass, for immediately following their moment of resolve, the door to the back of the truck slid up & there, standing in the glow of the parking lights, was their father. An immediate sense of rage fell over that younger boy as he realized what had happened. It eventually turned to relief but he never – ever - forgot what it was like to be trapped in that dark place & what it felt like to be abandoned.

The second story involves these same 3 characters a few years later - after ‘the divorce.’ Divorced & often separated from his children the father wanted to try & build some understanding & connection & feel closer to his children.

So, he did is what a lot of parents do – when his children visited, he read to them at bedtime. But contrary to stories other parents might choose, he didn’t read Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan or other fairy tales. Each night he read from a book by a child psychologist about divorce. Neither of the boys could decipher much from that evening ritual. Nevertheless, the routine continued for many weeks. Until, one night, towards the end of reading time, the man came across a line that he read in a different kind of way. He slowed down. The line was, “Just because a father becomes divorced it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love his children.” Then the man stopped altogether. & he read that line again, this time with his voice quivering as though he might suddenly cry.

Then he closed the book, kissed the boys goodnight, and left the room. It’s probably not necessary to tell you that neither of those boys understood a thing that was written in that book. And yet, it doesn’t take much to realize that they understood everything about their father’s faltering voice, the line that he repeated & his goodnight kiss.

The youngest boy in these stories, after a difficult realization that “life is filled with broken promises,” eventually became a Unity minister & one day in a lesson he said, “Nothing of what I have managed to accomplish in my life could have possibly happened without the ‘unmistakable truth that “Life is filled with broken promises. I became a minister because I have experienced what it was like to be trapped in a dark place. & I became a minister because I was unwilling to live in a life where deceit & disappointment is the only rule.

The next story happened in the early 1400’s. A man lived in Bohemia (what is now Czechoslovakia). His name was Jan Hus. He was a scholar & priest in the Roman Catholic Church & what we would, today, call an activist. He was very popular among both young & old people for they saw his life as a symbol of hope.

Hus deplored the corruption that riddled church practices & took great pains to change them. Two points in particular were abhorrent to him. First, the belief of the Church that only priests could participate in Holy Communion. Hus believed that everyone was entitled to share the wine of the chalice during communion & deserved a chance to hold it & pass to their neighbor the elements of their faith. Secondly, Hus believed that worship should be spoken in the common language, instead of Latin which no one understood.

For this he was tried & convicted of heresy by the church. He was offered several opportunities to recant — but he refused to do so. The punishment for such heresy was death. On his birthday, July 6, 1415, he was stripped of his vestments, taken to a field outside Prague & burned at the stake. He never rescinded his beliefs. Instead, he sang a hymn as the flames mounted around him. However, before he died, he made a prediction in the form of a joke, based on his name. In the Czech language “Hus” means “goose.” As he was being tied to the stake, he called to his tormentors, “You may roast this goose today, but one hundred years from now a swan will arise, whose singing you cannot silence.”

He was right. Less than one hundred years later, the Reformation swept Europe & the fire of religious liberty swept throughout Western Civilization.

We have come a long way from those dark times. And yet it is obvious that many of the attitudes & broken promises, which create darkness & barriers between people still exist today. The question I have for you is: “How do you handle life’s broken promises?” My choice to become a minister was the only practical response I could see to the broken promises I knew in my own life.

Let me tell you now the 4th story. A little boy found himself locked in the bathroom. His cries brought his frightened mother to the other side of the door & when he heard her he began to cry louder. She tried to explain to her son how to unlock the door but he was crying too hard to hear what she was saying.
& then to make matters worse, in a panic of jumping up & down, the little boy inadvertently hit the light switch & turned out the light. Now it was dark. Louder cries came forth & then he started pounding on the door in frustration. Finally the mother could hear him slump down against the cold bathroom tile.

Getting down on her knees the mother tried peering through the crack at the bottom of the door & she saw his cheek as he too tried to get his face low enough to see through the small space. With an idea, the mother quickly got a flashlight. She knelt down & turned the flashlight on so that it shone through the crack at the bottom of the door.

“Do you see the light, honey? Can you see it?” The boy stopped crying for a second & said, “I can see it. ”
“That’s me!” she cried. “The light is coming from me. I’m right here!” “I can see you, mommy, but I can’t get to you.”

Then the mother took her other hand and slid 3 fingers under the door & wiggled them. “Can you see my fingers?” she asked. “I can see your fingers!” he replied. “I can see them.” “Grab hold of my fingers,” she said.

And he did – for the entire hour it took for the next door
neighbor to take down the door that kept them apart.

Everywhere around us it is the same. In this community, in history and in our lives: if we want to offer a real response to life’s broken promises we must be willing to be a light.

Which brings me, finally, to the 3rd sentence I promised you & that is this: The only success we will know of building from broken promises, a new dream of hope, will be measured by how & how far we are willing to carry our own light in what is often a dark & lonely world.

In a life full of broken promises, it is always within us to choose to do good anyway. Because we know, that the hardest of all broken promises to endure is the promise we break to ourselves by not making the difference in our own lives & in our world that Jesus told us that we are capable of & through the good work that we do, the hope that is ultimately restored may, indeed, be our own.

The Promise

The promises you make in this life start you dancing with the joy of ‘that splendid torch.’ But it is the promises that you keep that will ensure that you keep dancing & stay in the flow of life. A promise is your word, whether spoken or implied, cast forth into physical reality. It is a covenant you make with the world. It says: “This shall be done.”

When you make a promise you set up an energy imbalance. For example: Let’s say you tell your best friend you’ll take him or her to dinner next Wednesday night as a birthday present. You create a tension with a promise, the expectation of something yet to be done.

When you put your word out before you like this, you create a ‘gap’ that can only be closed when you do what you said you’d do. Now, imagine that it’s Wednesday & you’re at dinner with your friend. See how the tension resolves? The energy field is now once again balanced.

The energy dance that keeps us moving on our spiritual path involves creating & resolving imbalances. When we produce a ‘gap’ we’re pulled forward to close it.


We often neglect to consider the effect of not keeping our promises. When we don’t do what we said we’d do, we’re left with the tension of incompletness. Unfulfilled promises are energy drains because we expend more energy to keep a gap open than we do when we resolve it.

Each unfulfilled promise draws energy to itself & becomes a block to the flow of God’s energy. It saps your power. You can become physically, emotionally & even spiritually so tired that you have no energy & it doesn’t matter with whom you made your promise. In fact, many of us are much better at keeping the promises we make to others than keeping the promises we make to ourselves.

The universe doesn’t care with whom you made the contract. Not keeping your word to yourself is still not keeping your word. It produces the same gap so it is just as significant as failing to keep a promise to someone else. The important thing to realize is that every broken promise we experience is a wake up call.

Order of Saint Lukes the Physician

I am reporting that I have become an associate member in the Order of Saint Luke the Physician and have been elected to a position of Co-convener. It is an international society of Healers working together and in their small groups to heal all that abodes here on Mother Earth. It's charge is A to Z in healing from the poorest to the grandiose of all creation. Right now I am engulfed in a 26 week course of study on the HEALING METHODS of THE CHRIST and how I and we can utilize the same methods to enact the same results. I find it most interesting, when I think about the healing methods I use as Native Metis Healer. My goal is to utilize both methods combined to enrich my work with the sicknesses of the Earth.

I know there is nothing that is accomplished without the invocation and help from The Creator. To truly be a Healer, I must keep myself in touch and in tune with His Will in all things. This kind of connection needs an acceptance of the role of G-d / Grand Father in my life. This is to be a grand new adventure!