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| It is a warm, fall Sunday morning in Virginia and you have been on my heart and in my spirit deeply. So many of you have written to me and sent your personal messages through Ted that you have enjoyed reading Silver Scripts and for that I thank you from my heart. You encourage me as I ask Spirit to continue to speak to all of us through these humble writings. Very recently Ted and I participated in a small but very spiritual and intimate Pow Wow near Detroit. The coordinators of the event are Bryan Halfday and Helen Wolfe, who are some of the most respected and loved people in the American Indian Services organization. This spirit couple work tirelessly without much recognition to serve the Native Peoples of North America. Ted and I have come to love and honour them and their work. The Pow Wow was located in a park on the edge of a river where ships and boats could be seen passing by.....some blowing their horns in a hello to the tee pees and tents of vendors they saw as they were making their way to their destinations. There was a soft spirit breeze that blew on us while people of all races and beliefs gathered to enjoy stories, music, good food and traditional native dancing in bright colourful regalia. If you have never been to a Pow Wow, I highly encourage you to visit this one next year for learning, healing and inspiration for the soul. The Emcee for this event is Dennis Banks, one of the original founders of the American Indian Movement which has done so very much in its history to help the Native People through their struggle for their rights and their lands. He is a powerful, but humble man who loves all people and gives of his life and his energy as well as his humour for all of us to enjoy. We admire and honour this man and his many sacrifices for his calling. This year, Bill Miller, a two time Grammy winner, NAMI winner and Life Achievement Award recipient blessed us with his beautiful flute and guitar compositions as well as his deeply moving stories. This is a very famous man both in Native circles and in Country and Rock venues as well. Certainly, it would benefit anyone who is interested to go to his website and learn more about him. His CDs and artwork are a gift of Spirit. Bill performed concerts during the entire Pow Wow, but it was the Friday night event where he sat on a small stage and spoke intimately to the people of the power of forgiveness. Having dinner with him later on he told us he had no idea that he would speak as he did to the people, but it truly was the voice of Spirit speaking to our hearts from this famous but humble musician. He spoke of many personal experiences in his lifetime but of one in particular that I will share with you because of how deeply it touched the hearts of everyone there. Bill is the oldest of nine children in a family where the mother was married to a war veteran who had returned an alcoholic and a very abusive man. Never once in his lifetime did Bill ever feel his father's arms around him or hear the words, "I love you son" from his father. Instead of being connected to his father and experiencing fishing trips that were promised but never realized he, his mother and his sisters were horrendously abused. His father was an expert in torture tactics from his time with the Green Berets. He gave details of some of the abuse, which I will not share in this space, but was far beyond even what I could have imagined. He spoke of his own hatred for his father, his deeds and his own addiction to alcohol to cover the pain he felt inside. He spoke of his inability to love, or show emotion except through his music which was his life. Bill's father died without ever having shared love with his son. He said that through it all, the Great Spirit, always was present and kept him alive although he did not recognize it then. It is interesting that Spirit will use people we've never met before to teach us lessons and help us heal. Shortly after Bill's father had crossed into Spirit World, having become a famous musician, he received an invitation to be the only non-African American invited to perform at a huge Martin Luther King Memorial event on the great mall in Washington, DC. That, in itself, was Spirit at work. For while he and his band were preparing to go on stage, an elderly black man passed Bill, stopped abruptly and then returned to him. This old man with cloudy eyes, looked into his own windows of the soul and said to him "Have you lost someone son?" Bill not recognizing where the man was going with this, said he did not know what he was referring to. The man again asked, "Have you lost someone close to you son? Your eyes are sad and your spirit feels as if you have suffered a great loss." It was at that moment that Spirit arranged a healing for Bill. When he recognized the man was referring to his father, he told him he had lost his father but they were not close. The wise elder asked him if his father had ever told him he loved him. He asked him had he ever been hugged by a man. Bill had not. At that moment and without warning this old spirit man took Bill in his arms and hugged him and kissed him on his cheek. He then called to six of his other brothers who were traveling with him and those men all came to Bill, hugged him, kissed him and told him they loved him. Isn't it interesting that Spirit would use seven black men to give Bill Miller his first experience of love from a fatherly figure. He never saw them again, but that day, the healing began in Bill's heart and his life was changed forever. Many years later, as the sun was setting in the western skies, this beautiful and compassionate spirit sitting on a small stage at a Pow Wow in Michigan, brought our eyes to tears as he told us how much he forgives and loves his father and how he looks forward to the time when he and his father will reunite in Spirit World and he will say, "Come on dad, let's go fishing." Ted leaned over to me and whispered, "You have your next writing for the Silver Scripts don't you". He was right because at that very moment I wished you had all been there with us to witness this moving message from the Creator. I asked Spirit to help me bring this powerful story of forgiveness to you as best I could. Unless we can forgive, we can not move forward with freedom and life on our journey. We are bound by the acts that hurt us and will forever live in a jail cell of our own making, paralyzed from experiencing true love and the power of Spirit. It is unlikely that there is anything that any of us have experienced that is worse than what Bill's father did to his family and his son. Yet, an old black man he had never met showed him the power of forgiveness and through the act of love, released this beautiful and powerful musician from his own darkness. No longer needing to cover his pain temporarily through alcohol, Bill became sober, married a wonderful woman and has a family of his own that he loves very deeply. When you listen to his music you will hear and feel the compassion of Spirit. I wish for everyone of you who are caught in your own grief and unforgiveness that this story or someone Spirit has selected, will come to you, touch your heart and give you the courage to set yourself free from that which no longer serves you. I pray that you will breathe in new life and allow yourself to be loved by first forgiving and then by giving love yourself. It is never too late......right now is the perfect time to let go of the pain. Aren't you exhausted from holding on to it by now? ...know that you are never alone and that the Great Mystery walks beside you and is with you on your journey. Ted and I send our love to you and your families. Walk in Power! Many blessings, Brenda |
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