{"id":1111,"date":"2023-06-12T08:18:35","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T14:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2023-06-12T08:18:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T14:18:35","slug":"just-whos-pointing-at-whom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/?p=1111","title":{"rendered":"JUST WHO\u2019S POINTING AT WHOM?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

For a number of years, I led a Ghost Ranch Conference Center\u2019s winter college level \u201cJan Term\u201d class I called \u201cThe Spirit of Place.\u201d\u00a0 In 2003, our class traveled to San Ildefonso Pueblo for their annual Deer Dance ceremony.\u00a0 We left later than planned but my irritation and concern about missing the dances dissolved into the blood red sunrise over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and was replaced with acceptance, prayer and trust.\u00a0 In fact, we did miss the dancers coming over the hills, but just as we entered the Bupingeh<\/em> (see video at Respected center of the Pueblo<\/a>) the dancers and crowd entered from the opposite side. The sacred ceremony began just as the sun rose over the eastern mountain ridge, its rays illuminating the shrine of feathers, corn meal and specially selected pine tree.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Dreamtime<\/p><\/div>\n

After breakfast at Dollie’s restaurant in Espanola, we proceeded to the Santuario de Chimayo, a Catholic pilgrimage place since 1816.\u00a0 Native people were reported to have found the earth around this site endowed with healing properties. Indeed, there was a small side chapel at the church where visitors could gather some of the earth which no doubt was imbued with the power of fervent prayer as well. \u00a0As we parked the van at the Santuario, I noticed a man selling arts and crafts at the acequia (small water canal for irrigating farm fields). In my perspective, this seemed a violation of the sacredness of the place and reported him to the priest who good naturedly walked out to meet and greet this alleged criminal. I later saw the nuns giving him food, which he first offered to his dog.\u00a0 As people passed by, he gifted them with stones he had gathered somewhere along the way.\u00a0 One stone was given to a student in our group, who expressed appreciation.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I was at the Santuario for my own healing from this rush to judgment about this stranger. I shared with our class a Navajo (Dine) lesson I had heard once:\u00a0 never point your finger at someone, because you will find three fingers pointing back at yourself. <\/strong>That’s just what \u00a0happened symbolically that day.\u00a0 I pointed out what I thought was wrong doing by someone, when it was really me who was in error.\u00a0 Perhaps it was “Christ in drag” (Ram Das’ delightful phrase https:\/\/www.ramdass.org\/about-ram-dass\/<\/a>) or \u201cChrist in all His distressing disguises,\u201d Mother Theresa\u2019s words) at the steps of the church who had come to teach me a lesson in humility!<\/p>\n

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For a number of years, I led a Ghost Ranch Conference Center\u2019s winter college level \u201cJan Term\u201d class I called \u201cThe Spirit of Place.\u201d\u00a0 In 2003, our class traveled to San Ildefonso Pueblo for their annual Deer Dance ceremony.\u00a0 We … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earthwalks-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1116,"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions\/1116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earthwalks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}