For as far back as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to the mystical and the magical. I’ve been fascinated by other cultures, both present and past, who seem to have had a more solid connection to the mystical and magical realms of spiritual realities. Being one who is deeply moved by music of every kind, I’ve also always been drawn to the mystical and magical sounds of what is termed “new age” as well as Celtic, Eastern and American Indian (*winks at Noelle*), African tribal music, not to mention the psychedelic sounds of some of the bands from the 60s and 70s and the raw, driving energy of Latin (give me some Carlos Santana…YEAH!). I LOVE hearing foreign languages spoken fluently…ANY foreign language. It matters not that I don’t know what is being said…I just love to hear it.

I’ve often wondered where these tendencies come from, as they do not seem to be present in others of my family, either near or extended, though I know there is mysticism in my Celtic (father’s side) and Cherokee (mother’s side) ancestry. My grandfather of 4 generations back was a Cherokee chief. I don’t know whether a peace chief, war chief or any other manner of chief, just that he was a chief. Oooooohhhhh what I’d give to meet him today, and spend just a day in his presence, but alas, I don’t even know his name, that I might claim rights to this honorable heritage. My grandmother on my father’s side was an artist. I actually have some of her paintings that were done with charcoal and painted with berries and other colorings from natural sources, as she had no money to purchase real paint pigments.

I'm just wandering around here in my thoughts. Bear with me...

Touring the Oconaluftee Village yesterday, I felt very close to my past. At one point during our tour, our guide stood next to me while another young man demonstrated the use of blow darts in hunting. I looked at him and said, “Do you ever wish you could go back in time and stay there?” I could tell by the way he looked at me in response to that question that he did indeed, even before he affirmed it with his words, I knew we were kindred spirits, and I could tell that he recognized that too.

In another leg of the Village tour, I asked another of our guides if the modern Cherokee still practice their original spiritual traditions. She said some of ‘the Elders’ do, but few of the younger generation. She admitted that although not many Cherokee of her generation even have knowledge of their language, that the language is being taught today in their schools as a required subject.

Isn’t it weird how you meet strangers and almost INSTANTLY, you feel an incredible ‘connection’ with them…almost as if you had known each other from the beginning of time. I felt that yesterday with a few people that I met. One was a black family who was touring with us…a man, his wife and small daughter and the wife’s mother. We kept bumping into them everywhere we went on the reservation yesterday. I felt it with our guide at the village. I felt it with a very young man I spoke with for just a moment outside the fairgrounds. I felt it with a Seminole man we spoke with on the grounds. His entire demeanor lit up as we asked him questions about his native culture, as he explained the meanings behind his attire and other symbolic tokens. If I had not had the kids with me, I think I could’ve remained there all day with some of these people and been greatly enriched by conversations with them. Perhaps another trip at another time is in order…

It’s funny, how so many hundreds of years ago, the Europeans came to this land with their own special giftings and talents and knowledge, but in the arrogant assumption that what they had to offer mankind was somehow of more value than the giftings and talents and knowledge of the native dwellers here, hence the attempt to eradicate them all, along with their cultures. Now, hundreds of years later, there seems to be a renewed fascination with these peoples and their cultures. Sad that it has taken so much time and so much loss for man to discover that we all are of value and we all have something very unique to share with others…that NO one’s contribution is of lesser value than that of another.

One of, if not THE things I love most about the United States is the diversity of mankind represented here, and the present-day freedom of this diversity to practice and express the diversity of backgrounds and cultures. Though in many cases, it was tragedy that brought us together here on this land – the slavery of the Africans, the attempted destruction of the American Indians – hardships in homelands left behind for the promise of opportunity in a distant land – now that we are together, regardless of how this unique mixture may have come about, can you not see the unspeakable value of such opportunity today?

Honor your heritage. Learn all you can about it. Who knows what things of great value have been lost across generations of ignorance and violence? Learn about it and share it with others with enthusiasm, for in the sharing of your own great truths with others and THEIR truths, we all become so much richer within. I left Cherokee, NC yesterday, feeling somehow better, bigger, richer. Thank you, Cherokee (and all other tribes represented at the festival yesterday), for sharing your culture with us (many of us descended from those who tried so desperately to eradicate it) so freely and warmly.


God I love this country. I love the WORLD of nations and cultures represented here. Though there are many dark chapters in American history to be ashamed of (perhaps, some of which have been/are being written in our own lifetimes) I am grateful for the progress that has thus far been accomplished, and look forward to the progress we will make together in the future.

(PS…of COURSE, pictures will follow!)