From Living the New Story –  Series 3

Pat McCabe, Weyakpa Najin Win (Woman Stands Shining), is a Diné mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She is a voice for global peace, and her paintings are created as tools for individual, earth and global healing.

She draws upon the Indigenous sciences of Thriving Life to reframe questions about sustainability and balance, and she is devoted to supporting the next generations, Women’s Nation and Men’s Nation, in being functional members of the “Hoop of Life” and upholding the honour of being human.

Questions for ongoing reflection and dialogue

1. What traditions or practices are you aware of in your own lineage, your own heritage, that support your embodied connection to the sacred and to the flourishing of life? If none come to mind, what spiritual teachings have you adopted or been exposed to on your adult life path from traditions outside your own lineage? How have they awakened your sense of the sacred and nourished you on your spiritual journey?

 

1. Pat feels that as a species, we are being called to step out of our trauma stories – our stories about scarcity, our stories about fear, our stories about the need to have power over one another in order to have what we need. Reflect on a trauma that has been operating in your personal life, your family, or through your ancestry. If you were to see this trauma through the lens of your place on The Sacred Hoop of Life, and the quality of your spirit which is untouchable, how might this transform your relationship to, and participation in, the trauma? What inner resources might you call upon to support you in this process?

Soto Zen. Dogen’s Shobogenzo

1. Identify and describe in detail at least one area of your life in which you feel you have participated in a human made system without your soul’s explicit consent. What would you like to disengage from that does not place life at the centre? What steps can you take to support that disengagement?

2. Pat feels that consent is an extraordinarily powerful spiritual gift and she shared her own personal declaration of consent: “I consent only to the authority of the law of the heart of Mother Earth.” Consider your own consent manifesto, your own declaration: What are you moving towards? What are you creating? What do you want? In light of that reflection, what do you personally consent to in service to life?

3. In Pat’s view, ‘the true economy of Mother Earth is radical abundance and fearless generosity’. What experiences do you have with these concepts, and where might you see this reflected around you? What do you feel it might take for you to step into the true economy at this point in your new story journey?