A Cherokee Legend

When gold was found in Georgia, the government forgot its treaties and drove the Cherokees to Oklahoma. One fourth of them died on the journey west. When the Trail of Tears started in 1838, the mothers of the Cherokee were grieving and crying so much, they were unable to help their children survive the journey. The elders prayed for a sign that would lift the mother's spirits to give them strength. God, looking down from heaven, decided to commemorate the brave Cherokees and so, as the blood of the braves and the tears of the maidens dropped to the ground, he turned them into stone in the shape of a Cherokee Rose.

The next day a beautiful rose began to grow where each of the mother's tears fell. The rose is white for their tears; a gold center represents the gold taken from Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem for the seven Cherokee clans. No better symbol exists of the pain and suffering of the "Trail Where They Cried" than the Cherokee Rose The wild Cherokee Rose grows along the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern Oklahoma today. More than 100 years ago, the Cherokee people were driven from their home mountains when the white men discovered gold in the mountains of Tears. Some of the people came across Marengo County in West Alabama. It seems that after they had left the mountains, they came this far south so not have to climb more mountains.

It was early summer and very hot, and most of the time the people had to walk. Tempers were short and many times the soldiers were more like animal drivers than guides for the people. The men were so frustrated with the treatment of their women and children, and the soldiers were so harsh and frustrated that bad things often happened. When two men get angry they fight and once in a while men were killed on the trip. Many people died of much hardship. Much of the time the trip was hard and sad and the women wept for losing their homes and their dignity. The old men knew that they must do something to help the women not to lose their strength in weeping. They knew the women would have to be very strong if they were to help the children survive.

So one night after they had made camp along the Trail of Tears, the old men sitting around the dying campfire called up to the Great One in Galunati (heaven) to help the people in their trouble. They told Him that the people were suffering and feared that the little ones would not survive to rebuild the Cherokee Nation.

The Great One said, "Yes, I have seen the sorrows of the women and I can help them to keep their strength to help the children. Tell the women in the morning to look back where their tears have fallen to the ground. I will cause to grow quickly a plant. They will see a little green plant at first with a stem growing up. It will grow up and up and fall back down to touch the ground where another stem will begin to grow. I'll make the plant grow so fast at first that by afternoon they'll see a white rose, a beautiful blossom with five petals. In the center of the rose, I will put a pile of gold to remind them of the gold which the white man wanted when his greed drove the Cherokee from their ancestral home."

The Great One said that the green leaves will have seven leaflets, one for each of the seven clans of the Cherokee. The plant will begin to spread out all over, a very strong plant, a plant which will grow in large, strong clumps and it will take back some of the land they had lost. It will have stickers on every stem to protect it from anything that tries to move it away.The next morning the old men told the women to look back for the sign from the Great One. The women saw the plant beginning as a tiny shoot and growing up and up until it spread out over the land. They watched as a blossom formed, so beautiful they forgot to weep and they felt beautiful and strong.

By the afternoon they saw many white blossoms as far as they could see. The women began to think about their strength given them to bring up their children as the new Cherokee Nation. They knew the plant marked the path of the brutal Trail of Tears. The Cherokee women saw that the Cherokee Rose was strong enough to take back much of the land of their people.

The Three Of Swords

The picture on the Three of Swords can bring up some disturbing feelings within us but these internal stirrings kick up within us because this card deals with the heart of the matter and if when we see the Three of Swords with honesty and understand it as sign for us to wake up... pay attention and begin to observe the inner workings of our heart... we can use it’s message to transform us.

The Three of Swords often represents life's curve balls that can land our direction from time to time.... betrayal, abandonment, rejection, separation.... can be quite a shock because they hit you when you least expect them. If you have drawn this card you may know what it refers to but if not, the Three of Swords is a valuable warning. It is likely there is something that needs attention in your life and you may be unaware of or unwilling to acknowledge it. Curve balls hit us when we're looking the other way and we need to look at the situation carefully. Talking to the people in your life and not taking anything for granted as well as listening to your inner voice will help you locate the problem

In this light, these swords hint to our ability to balance basic and supporting beliefs leading to heartfelt breakthroughs in our lives. The veil of obscurity is pierced, and the heart of our desire is made manifest through our practice of living an observed, aware, and balanced life.

In A Heartbeat...She was Gone

What follows is a local news story not too very far from my backyard....just a matter of minutes by car. How sad the world seems to be getting when children can no longer live the carefree, innocent life that all children have the right to. They should not worry that they might never see their families again simply because they were walking home...parents should never be seen grieving their loss on national or local television...This should be the best years of their little lives but yet our children are being taken... one by one... day by day and it seems that no child is truly safe. Today... I implore you to hug your children, hold them close and let them know how much they mean to you... teach them of "Stranger Danger" Have them check in often...know their friends...become aquainted with their friend's parents... don't turn your back on them, not even for a minute because they can disappear like a mist in only a heartbeat. The world is not like it was in my youth, a loss we should all be grieving for.

Transient sex offender admits beating Hazel Dell girl after attempted rape

02:07 PM PST on Tuesday, February 24, 2009
By kgw.com Staff

HAZEL DELL, Wash. -- A transient sex offender admitted to police that he violently beat a 13-year-old Hazel Dell girl after attempting to rape her and then moved her body afterwards to "an area where she would be found," according to a court document.
Detectives on Monday arrested Darin E. Sanford, 30, for the murder of Alycia D. Nipp, who was found beaten in a Hazel Dell field. Sanford was arrested on probable cause and charged with aggravated murder in the first degree, based on the confession he provided Clark County investigators.
Some of Nipp’s family members attended Sanford’s first court appearance Tuesday morning.
“They had to look at him and they had to see this monster that did this," Alycia’s aunt, Amber Hager said. “I want to see him sentenced to death, honestly. I think, he took a life and for that he deserves to give a life, his life.”

Post Script~ This very same man was the subject of a news story almost exactly a year ago...he was under arrest at the time for failure to register as a sex offender.