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author: Michael Garrett
Books are more than words - they are gifts from the heart. I choose to read Walking On The Wind not only for its subject matter, but because I have read other works by Michael Garrett's father, J.T. Garrett, as well as work that was co-authored by father and son. I knew that I would be entering another world through this book - one of grace and beauty, one that would sneak its way in and act as both a beacon and a stepping stone on my personal life path.
Walking On The Wind is about taking the middle road in life, about taking responsibility for ourselves, about the circle of life and mutual respect for All Of Our Relations. Michael Garrett speaks of his own life, and the manner in which he was taught to respect the world around him. Garrett himself is Eastern Cherokee - his stories are a blend of Eastern Cherokee and other First Nations. He brings the oral tradition of his people to paper with great effect.
Interspersed throughout the book are the Cherokee names for that which is being discussed. In the beginning of the book Garrett has included a pronunciation guide for the Cherokee sounds. This is a courtesy, yes - but also a great gift. Through this guide we who are not native Cherokee speakers can at least come close to the true feeling of each Native American concept. Why is this so? Because when we pronounce the words in Cherokee, we get the vibrational quality of the true word, not the quality of the translated word. In every translation, from my point of view, something is lost. To be able to go back and read/speak the true words as they were set down - this is a gift.
Garrett speaks of the importance of the circle in all that we do. It has no beginning, it has no end. It is a cycle - as are all things in life. Those things that are in opposition we come to understand as actually being part of each other - they do not stand alone. We learn about walking in step with the Circle (the cycles of life) and about the Rule of Opposites. (I am not going to discuss this Rule here - suffice it to say that this is a very important story that concerns Garrett and his father, and his father's way of teaching.)
We learn about being and doing - and why focusing on being brings very different things into our lives than doing. We learn about living the balanced life, about celebrating the sacred and bridging the cultures. We learn about the Four Directions, the energies of All Of Our Relations that are connected with each direction, and we learn about the Give-Away as a way of respecting life.
We learn to listen to the earth, and we learn that our homes are always carried with us, and that as we change the nature of our homes changes with us. We learn to listen to mother earth, to hear her heartbeat and to leave our footprints softly on her soil. We learn to take the fourth plant, and the difference between medicine and Medicine.
I think the highest recommendation that a book can carry is to let the book speak for itself. When I read the following words, the tears flowed. Here was truth - there is no higher truth. From the back cover:
"I am a traditional Cherokee mother and grandmother, and it is my responsibility to teach my children and grandchildren to be at peace with everyone and everything, and how to live as a true Cherokee (Tsa la gi), in harmony with all living things. If the Creator (U ne tla nu hi) decided that he needed me more than my children and grandchildren, needed me tomorrow, then I can go to him at peace knowing that this wonderful book, "Walking On The Wind", was here to teach them the things I didn't get a chance to teach them." Myrtle Driver Johnson, Eastern Band of Cherokee
Bonnie Cehovet
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