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We Walk Alongside

Writer's picture: Tracy ChalmersTracy Chalmers
Being with the dying is spiritual practice in action. Over the years I have come to know that listening is love - it’s that simple - deep listening and feeling with another is spiritual practice in real time.

Did you see me? Did you hear me? This is all any of us really want to know. This need intensifies for people on the end of life journey, when the dying find themselves off-trail, walking toward the great unknown. When we listen we companion, we walk alongside.

I read the words below from Jamie Sams this morning and I felt the weight of the truth they carry land in my bones.

“Listening is the foremost rule that determines a person’s integrity and substance.

Talking circles are what we use to bring problems out into the open, to find solutions, to share our feelings and experiences, and to honor the Sacred Points of View of every person present. To interrupt a speaker is to bring dishonor on his or her words, to bring dishonor on one’s upbringing, one’s family, Tribe, Clan, and Nation.

Among other cultures, this practice may seem alien because words are not considered part of the Sacred Breath of Life that holds a person’s Sacred Point of View. When people are talking, they are not listening. When one person interrupts another, the lack respect is apparent. When people are constantly talking about anything that comes to their minds, it is a sign that they have no self-reflective skills and do not feel the weight or sacredness that their words carry. If the words that are spoken carry no commitment or carelessly hurt another, the speaker is not in tune with Onenenss. Anyone can claim to be spiritual. The truth of how far they have come on the Sacred Path is noted by simply seeing how they listen and how they speak.”

Earth Medicine

Jamie Sams is of Iroquois and Cherokee descent. She is a medicine teacher and author of numerous books.
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