10/15/07 NK'MIP Cultural Center in Osoyoos

After 3 days of jacuzzi, heated pool, beautiful sunny days, bike riding, free gameroom with pool, shuffleboard, ping pong, etc..
we had to move on.. On our way out of town, we spent the afternoon learning about the NK'MIP tribe and we got lucky and got to join in another groups tour.

They had Indian history, art, hands on art for the kids, and outside trails where we saw the types of housing the indians built and heard stories of how the lived, ate and interacted. I was most impacted by the wisdom of the elders, their respect for the earth and constant thougth of future generations and providing for them.

We saw 2 good films about the tribe, then and now and one really touched me.. It featured a teenage girl spending the summer on the reservation with her grandparents to learn about her culture. She struggles a bit at first to embrace the traditions, stories, spiritual beliefs etc.. but she gets really open quickly and jumps right in with the dancing, drumming, awareness of nature and feeling like a steward of the land. Her grandfather tells her of the coyote spirit who is always about watching and soon she feels him and is aware of his presense. The coyote is there to teach the people the ways of the land and Grandfather says he can feel the hunger in her, I'm not hungry though she replies.. not in your belly in your heart. She thinks deeply about this..

As the summer unfolds the girl really finds her way and in knowing her people and their ways, she comes to know herself and feels a sense of wholeness she didn't feel before, she is open, secure, & joyful. The closing line of the film is .. When you come to know who you are.. you aren't hungry anymore.

Very powerful for me, i sat there for several minutes (as the boys ran out of the theater)... Yes this is too is what i have found
knowing mySelf, awareness of the One Presence, the One source of everything and I AM THAT.. ends the seeking, the hunger, the looking outside for wellbeing, fulfillment, satisfaction..
Like Mick Jagger says.. I can't get no satisfaction.. and i try.. and i try.. and i try.... I can't get no... satisfaction..

There is no relationship, career, amount of money, drug, estatic state, physical health.. nothing that will untimately satisfy..
these things all fade, change, come and go.. i can enjoy them but not seek for happiness in them, for they will change and then i'll want something else.. hunger.. buddists call it desire.. the source of all suffering..

But in knowing my oneness with everything, feeling the aliveness in all the bodies, the trees, the sky.. identifying with the source of all, the hunger is no more.. there is resting.. aahhh