Friday Fun Flier XXXVI
A quick check-in, a spiritual book, and a podcast episode that brought me to tears
Quote(s) of the week:
“Listen to the air. You can hear it, feel it, smell it, taste it. Woniya wakan—the holy air—which renews all by its breath… Woniya—we sit together, don’t touch, but something is there; we feel it between us, as a presence. A good way to start thinking about nature, talk about it. Rather talk to it, talk to the rivers, to the lakes, to the winds as to our relatives.”
“All Creatures exist for a purpose. Even an ant knows what that purpose is--not with its brain, but somehow it knows. Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist.”
― John (Fire) Lame Deer
A quick discussion check-in:
Greetings from Panama, all you beautiful people!
I hope you’re having a beautiful day :) As I type this, I’m sitting in an elevated wall-less shack on the front lawn of my hostel in Panama, staring out at the Pacific Ocean in all its power and majesty.
The sun is setting (hey, I’m a surfer now, I write when I can), and the epic, almost light-pollution-less stars that we get down here are coming out one by one.
In this little haven that I’ve found, I feel primal, like I’m drawing energy and restfulness from my surroundings. I’ve never felt so calm and simultaneously energized!
It always amazes me how, as humans, we can draw so much power and satisfaction from places. My question for you today is:
What’s your happy place? In other words, what place makes you feel energized/connected?
Comment your answer on today’s post!
A spiritual book I read this week:
Seeker of Visions by John (Fire) Lame Deer
This is one of those books that showed up exactly when I needed it most. I arrived at my hostel, walked over to the bookshelf, and it was one of only three books in English.
What a pile of hot wisdom. John Lame Deer was a Sioux medicine man born in the late 1800s. This book is an oral history recorded by the artist Richard Erdoes, and it chronicles Lame Deer’s life and advice for those who come after him.
Covering his vision on a mountaintop as a sixteen-year-old that made him into a medicine man, his brushes with white society (including a multi-stolen-car bender that landed him in jail for a year), and his return to his people to serve as a healer, this book is packed with amazing stories.
But in-between the stories are laid his pearls of wisdom, and they are divine. The quotes I opened this newsletter up with are just the tip of the iceberg.
If you want to be in the presence of great wisdom, learn about traditional Soiux culture, and have a few laughs along the way, read this book. It gave me so much to chew on.
A Podcast episode that made me laugh and cry:
Unmapped is my new favorite podcast. Mike Kelly, the host, calls it “an exploration of the human desire for travel.”
In each episode, he brings on some new and interesting human for whom traveling has been important/healing/life-changing. His interviews have included:
-A woman who had to flee the taliban because she dared to pretend to be a boy so she might go to school.
-A motorcycle nomad who uses her Instagram following to run a global bike-tour business.
-A woman who dated a murderer and managed to escape, then travelled to India because a clairvoyant told her that if she stayed home she would not survive.
Trigger warning: This episode contains descriptions of quite a few graphic struggles with mental illness, and violence.
It’s one of the most powerful interviews I’ve ever heard. Mila made it through her darkness, wrote a memoir called The Way of The Fire Tiger, and currently works as a traditional bamboo tattoo artist in Brisbane.
If you like getting into the nitty-gritty of life, this is for you.
Thanks for reading today everybody! May your journey over the next week be fulfilling.
Aaron