Not too long ago a person I have seen mentioned a few times on various YouTube and Facebook threads came to closer attention, Stephen Jenkinson, co-founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. I can’t say I always understand everything he says while listening to the various many offerings and interviews available online, but nonetheless there is a sense of deep resonance.
Last night I watched the film Griefwalker, a deeply resonant movie for me. A beautiful film, and I highly recommend it. It was certain scenes though that brought it home, touched something so deep – a sense of subtle relief with some of the scenes, almost like a homecoming…the way the hide was tanned, the way the canoe was mended, the way the canoe was gliding through the water, the way incense got used, the way of sitting with the dying in those clothes, the pace and way movement happened.
I have not been avoiding death, the school I am involved with does reading for the dying, does reading for the afterlife journey, and I have been at many deaths, albeit more recently/consciously with “just” chickens, and trees and flowers…and the life on earth. Many years ago there were babies and children, during my time as a physician, and my father, the only older human. Recently I had an opportunity to partake in a process of facing death with someone I had met 20 years ago, who offered zoom group encounters over 4 weeks, …and I found the way the group assembled was a very unusual and special occurrence. He died a week after the last meeting. I have also not closed eyes or heart or mind to the deep trouble the world finds itself in, and I am no stranger to what I call this deep grief for which I have no words. I think planting trees whose shade I will never sit in is related.
Kimberly Ann Johnson is having a series of conversations in November of 2021 with this man, Stephen Jenkinson. While I won’t be attending those myself, it may not be too late to join at the time of this posting. Myself, I could not think of anything I even wanted to ask Stephen Jenkinson, until this morning – maybe.
It comes from the sense, that, even though I had a home of sorts, parents who cared for me, a heritage, which is Germanic, but also having grown up in a particular family setting in post world war Germany and …always, even as a kid, resonated with Native American, northern and southern, and later, Tibetan. But primarily, Native American. This got strengthened attending classes with Tom Brown Jr, the Tracker. After taking several of his classes, I found I needed to do a different kind of work and 25 years later, the depth of my personal trauma and conditioning and lifelong limitations finally clarified somewhat and I live in the aftermath of that…..and
And so, this morning while waiting for the coffee to drip through and having been with the question for a few days now of why it is that there is an attraction and a resonance, a question, something I can’t put my finger on, something clicked for me. At least part of it is this:
Orphan
Feeling like an Orphan
Not ever feeling at home.
I don’t know how or why he calls his school that, Orphan Wisdom School, but I realized that on a deep level, I have felt like an orphan all my life. I used to have dreams and imaginations of being a refugee, packing bags ….to be on the run, or rather, walk, without a home. Living in the Orphanage of western “Civilization” giving this being human a try.
Then I see Griefwalker, with its particular scenes and pace and it includes scenes of the Native American way of life. And that is what triggered this, what I can call a subtle sense of relief, of a homecoming of sorts.
Now there is a question for him, something like: how did he get involved in the Native American way, the indigenous way and did that provide something like a sense of home on Earth? Did that connection help ability for manifesting eldership? What do those of us do who don’t have that?
Stephen Jenkinson…did that way of life offer any kind of sense of home. …for whatever the reason, maybe being deeply connected to all that is, realizing the relationship with everything, the slower pace. The preciousness of life. Just wondering.
Meanwhile, I will continue to endeavor to find the ground to stand on, if there is one withing the maze of this thing we call manifest Being, stumbling along so many times, and maybe, someday, I can offer something to those who come after me that is of value in the times to come, or for humanity and life on this beautiful Earth. With gratitude. …for life and that, your presence.