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Role Models are Everywhere with Gene Tagaban

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Role Models are Everywhere

Collin Gabriel April 23, 2021

Transcript

Gene Tagaban (00:00):

I got, I got my fancy mic on. I’ve been using that lately.

Jillene Joseph (00:03):

Yeah, you’re good. Oh crap. Okay. Here. We’re on.

Gene Tagaban (00:14):

Welcome. Welcome to, uh, a native wellness power hour. Um, you probably just saw, uh, our executive director agiley Joseph on there, and we’re just chatting away and having a conversation as we’re going here. And, uh, let me see here, uh, at a check, a few things out real quick and, um, and share this and, and, um, invite other people in which, uh, is exactly what I’m doing right now and make sure, uh, we can think is going here. Let me see, where are we at? Two, two, two, two. Oh, here we go.

Jillene Joseph (00:56):

Yeah, you’re good.

Gene Tagaban (01:01):

So a welcome, welcome. Welcome how you guys do it. Is there everybody out there?

Gene Tagaban (01:08):

Let me see here. So looks like we got 16 viewers and a, um, a dedicated viewer, Juul, Juul, lamb. Good to see you out there. It’s always, always good to see you. So, Hey, this is the Native Wellness Power Hour. My name is Jean Taliban, mushy Lincoln name is [inaudible] I’m of the duck day. Dane, Tom clan, Raven freshwater, Sockeye clamp, them who are not Alaska. The child of a wish Katani of a shark clan from a haunting Juno, Alaska, um, Cherokee, think it and Filipino I’m a Cherokee side. My mother’s maiden name is Summerfield and uh, her Turkey name is weak and she traced her lineage back before the trail of tears before, um, through the place that is now called Georgia and Tennessee and I’m of the Wolf clan on my cherry Keyside. And, um, and oftentimes I wonder how many relatives that we would have, uh, if there was not for that, that trail, that trail, you know, many relatives passed on, uh, perished and many, uh, relatives were born, but I’ll tell you what, uh, I know that there’s still that resilience and a perseverance that are in, and it’s in the spirit of the people and that, uh, runs in me.

Gene Tagaban (02:21):

I saw it, I saw see it in my mom, see it in my mother, you know, I’m also part Filipino. And so, uh, my Filipino side, my last name is take a bat and a, the Pilipino, uh, in the Philippines, the plaster is to go up and the company and my grandfather comes from, uh, talking to my great grandfather, comes from [inaudible].

Gene Tagaban (02:40):

And, uh, so, uh, Jewish, uh, what else? Llama, llama. And it’s really good to be here. We are being sponsored at this time by the noise foundation and my hands go up to the noise foundation to thank you so much for all your support for not only for us the needed water system, too, but for, um, just so much other native communities that you support and you work with out there, you know, and you’re on the front lines, bringing in that awareness about the justices, social justices and the healing out there for the people. So the noise foundation [inaudible] thank you so much. So what the native one is Powell hours. We are on program number 291 and week 52. This Sunday, we are going to be, um, celebrating it in a way, uh, yeah, acknowledging that we’ve been on and doing these power hours for a whole year, believe that whole year.

Gene Tagaban (03:42):

And we, we started power hours just to, uh, during the closure of this pandemic, just because it was, um, you know, we knew that a traumatized people would be retraumatized and since everything closed up on our schedule, we used to go out to the communities and work with the people, but everything is shut down. All our calendars are advanced, just like so many other people out there. We got together and, and were talking about what are we going to do now? What are we going to do now? And so we figured, well, let’s, let’s provide some, um, healing, this provide some workshop, let’s provide some relief. And so that’s where we created the power hours. And, um, thank you. Thank you for viewing him. Thank you for coming in and, and, uh, taking part. And so, um, share, share the length, share with other people.

Gene Tagaban (04:37):

And today what I’m going to be talking about is, uh, about role models, role models in our lives. And hang on a sec, I just say my background, uh, I hear my dog, Hey, stop that. Yeah, you can stay over there. My dog’s scratching, right. And isn’t looking away at his paws and things like that. So I heard it on the back. So role models, role models in our lives. And, um, first of all, I just want to share is that, uh, many of you heard me say this, that our life is a story. Our life is a story and we’re the storytellers of this, of our, our lives, you know? And, um, and right now with you being here, viewing in now my, uh, I am part of your story and you are part of my story and your story is this long, lifelong story.

Gene Tagaban (05:38):

But right now what we have right here, what puts together our life story are the moments, the small chunks, the small moments in our life and our life. And what we have right here is just a moment, a moment. So that’s why so many times our moments are so sacred and you’ll hear elders, uh, talking about that too. It’s just to really appreciate the moment. And I’m seeing more and more of that as I, as I’m aging, as I’m getting older. And I know when I was younger, I used to take, uh, take it for granted, take it for granted. But as age I’m getting older, I’m starting to appreciate the moments, the moments, the moments of, um, of just being present the moment of, uh, especially with family, you know, especially since we’ve been away from family, you know, and, uh, um, yeah, I slated in our own place.

Gene Tagaban (06:46):

You know, I’m fortunate to have Ruby Ruby in my life. Uh, we’ve been able to spend this time together. Ruby’s my, my, uh, life partner, my wife, my, my best friend, you know, and thank goodness that I can say I’ve, I’ve enjoyed. Um, now I’m blessed to be able to be in the same space with her now. I don’t know if she could say the same thing, if she’s, if she would say that she she’s blessed to be in the same space with me. Yeah. I think she would. I’m pretty positive. She would. And, uh, I hope so. She might even be listening right now, but it’s, uh, um, but yeah, just to take those, those moments say and appreciate them, you know, during this year, this pandemic to where things to close down, others, taking those moments for myself also to, um, go for walks or riding my bike or going to the water.

Gene Tagaban (07:38):

I live right next door to a park, uh, the second largest city park in the, in the country. Second only to, um, central park. We have old growth in there and trail, great trail system and, you know, uh, a great, a population of animals, deer birds fed a bear there at times. And, uh, but when things hit, everything just closed down and that includes the parks. That includes the parks. But I, I, I made my way in there. I made my way in there. They allow people to walk or ride bikes and I’d ride my bike and hiking around in there, but it was amazing. Um, you know, in our moment of our lives, uh, most of our lives and watching and keeping an eye out for those moments, somebody times we walk in the world looking like this need to see so many people walking in the streets on the pavement, walking around like this, or even walking around like this so much. And that’s, you know, we just got our tunnel vision, but when we’re out there in the woods, the forest, wherever we’re at to start looking around and seeing the world like this, I was one of those sayings, you know, role models are everything. And anything could be a role model for you. Anything, we can learn something from anything and they could be our teachers. And I want to say that because our ancestors Sheree, when we mentioned the word ancestors, we always think about, um, our human

Jillene Joseph (09:17):

Relationships are to labor relations. No,

Gene Tagaban (09:23):

And then, but there’s also the four legged, you know, and then the plants in the insect, they, or those in the, in the waters, they are also are and

Jillene Joseph (09:38):

Masters.

Gene Tagaban (09:41):

And we learned so much for them. And they’re our role models are role models. You know, as one of those things, too, when I was, when the things, everything closed down, I was going to that park. There wasn’t any car traffic, any road traffic, and very few people, very few people, if any, at all.

Gene Tagaban (10:02):

And the sh the roads, the pavement plant life started to grow on top of it. Plant life started to grow on top of it. Mosses, the birds were coming out more. And as I was riding my bike by, they’d just be right on the road right next to me, the deer actually started to show up more. And as I’m riding my bike by, I could actually reach out and stroke it’s for its height, its back, you see everything out there. It was starting to heal. And I knew, and I really got to know that that how quick nature can heal. And I learned that too, about how quick nature can heal. If you give it a chance. I see that within people, to human beings,

Jillene Joseph (11:01):

Our

Gene Tagaban (11:01):

Relatives, our native peoples, you know, even by itself, that, that how quick we can heal. If you just, if we give ourselves a chance, if we give ourselves a chance, You know, we’re part of nature. We’re part of the earth apart part of the land And thinking about that healing And those role models in my life, you know, there’s a story out there about a bear, a bear, and a Hunter went out there and uh, and had a spear. And I went to go hunt. This bear, big, big Brown bear. And it took the spear, you know, skillfully,

Jillene Joseph (11:48):

Skillfully moved in onto this bear,

Speaker 3 (11:54):

Moved in onto this bear. And then he struck this bear. And right when he says just about to get it right there in the heart, it, the bear flinched. And instead of getting him in that chest and that heart area, he got him to that children’s area. And the barrier started to run, run, run off wounded, wounded, wounded. So this here, young man, this Hunter, he went in, he followed this bear. He followed this bear and he followed this bear to a place where he went And he went to the place to get Madison And Alaska. They call it a skunk cabbage. He went to grab the roots and the mud. He grabbed the roots in the mud and started to just pack that womb, that medicine that’s called cabbage and then mud.

Speaker 3 (12:56):

And then that, that bear went and started doing climb to the top of the mountain. And he started to use that leg more, starting to use that leg more. And he came up to her place where everything was just fog. When you’re in the clouds, when you get up to a certain place, you’re there in the clouds and everything. It was too dense. Couldn’t see anything. Well this young young man, he kept following this bear and he saw this bear and he followed the bear. This bear came to an edge of a cliff. It seemed like came to the edge of the cliff and jumped in and over as if he jumped off this year, long logs, deep, long fall off this cliff, the young man, he ran over there and I seen what had happened. And the bear did not jump off this cliff, but below was beautiful, beautiful.

Speaker 3 (14:06):

The Lake wasn’t even a Lake. It was a mountain mountain, um, pond. And the water is almost bluish. Green is water. And he knew that that that water was his call because there was still snow around it. And this bear jumped into this, this, this water as to the other side and was that, it’s just that all that fog cleared around this pond as well. And that bear crawled out onto the side, shook himself off and looked back and look back at this young man. I don’t look back at him and then wandered off. See medicines are all over the place that bear knew where to go. That bear was taught him about that medicine of the skunk cabbage, the medicine or the bud, the minerals packing it in. And there Sarah Silverman didn’t know that before. And that barrel so taught that young man about the power of healing, waters of healing waters. There’s so much knowledge in our stories if we just take them out and, and, and listen to them. But those healing waters that bear went up to that ceiling healing waters that was this blue, green, those cold cold waters. And I don’t know about you have ever been in those senior streams or even in that cold, cold water. And you come out of it. It’s like as if you’re waking up, it affects your whole system. And deep, internally exited

Jillene Joseph (16:16):

Cold water.

Speaker 3 (16:20):

Say that bear was teaching them just like a teach us you and me, as I just told you the story about the, the water is like the cold water and how do we heal and how do we heal? Yeah. I don’t know those medicines around. And as I age more too, I’m seeing more and more the value of the cold water, cold water. I like to go into the cold water when itself. And then even as I go into the water, the water itself is a role model for us. What is it? Waters the water teaches. And as I’m, as I’m sharing with you this today, I was just asking you to be aware of your own experiences. What is coming up for you in your mind, your thoughts, your voices, your internal voices, what’s going on, coming up for you inside your chest and your heart, or even in the area, your core and your stomach, as I’m sharing these things with you be aware of your own experiences, because your story is your story. It’s nobody, else’s, it’s yours.

Speaker 3 (17:40):

You know, and it’s not that imagined story. And I I’ll often times I tell people to like welcome to my is my story is my own personal hallucination. And I feel that the only thing that is really real is when you go out into the forest and I was talking, I want to cross that threshold from the trail, the road into the forest, you have stepped into the threshold of spirit. That forest is spirit. And then when you go up to the waters, the waters, and you could see the waters there, but then you have like, it’s, it’s like a membrane that water. And then when you put your hand into the water, wherever you put your foot into the water, then you have now broken that membrane. And you’re starting to break into that threshold of spirit, the water and our indigenous peoples all over the world.

Speaker 3 (18:43):

I indigenous peoples know this, and I’m not saying, knew it, our indigenous people know this. And I know for myself, just that experience of going into the water and just, and, and just let that water, uh, embrace me as I embraced the water, that cold water go into that cold water. And I was taught to that, that, uh, closer to the source, the stronger the hearing it is. And I say close to the source as sources up in the mountain, closer to the glacier where that water comes from, and now water is cold, cold, cold, cold, but it’ll heal you and the water, it’s still, this is a role model model. What can we learn from the water? What can we learn from the waters? And what is that telling me right now? I’m asking you that question. What can you learn from the waters? Yeah. You know, and I was out there in the Nisqualli river. I saw the source of witness quality comes from up there on the mountain. And I remember as I’m standing there in the miss Tuolumne river, letting it go over me and acknowledging the river, you see, because I remember that in the squat or wherever the man that this quality wherever is, has been there before human beings, many of the trees, many of the animals that is quality river,

Jillene Joseph (20:31):

There’s an ancestor

Speaker 3 (20:34):

As I’m standing there and the low lands of in the squalor, I realize that, yeah, the mountain that river is bringing the mountain down to me. That river is bringing that mountain down to me. And as I emerged myself into that water, that’d be college it’s as if I’d just be with it as if I just get swept down to shore. And I just get recycled back up into the air and the water particles, and then back down, up onto the mountain and back down again. And it happens in a moment like that. Yeah. I love that. I love that water. And I want to encourage you to go see the water. And when you drink the water, we drink the water just to San Francis. Say, thank you, thank you. We can learn something from everything, everything around us as a role model to teach us one of my greatest teachers. All I want to share with you, you know, is, uh,

Jillene Joseph (21:50):

Mr. Frank,

Speaker 3 (21:55):

No, I’m not going to show his real name, but I’m going to call him Mr. Frederick. Now, Mr. Frank, she moved onto our neighborhood, not too, you know, a few houses down

Speaker 3 (22:11):

And a native family. We welcome. Welcome to the neighborhood. Yeah. But soon after they moved in, we discovered him and, uh, realized that Mr. Frank was, uh, an alcoholic. Now he wasn’t one of these alcoholics that were just like these, uh, casual drinkers or, or, um, binge drinkers on the, he was a full blown alcoholic, blackout, um, sometimes mean, you know, alcoholic. And they’re often times where the kids, my mother being a nurse, the kids would run over to the house and ask for my mom to come over because, uh, Mrs. Bernanke got beat up or hit. And they had something, she was bleeding or had a cut as my mom would go over there without hesitation, without hesitation, she’d go over there. She didn’t care if he was there drunk or anything, whatever she would go over there and Patra. Now, Mr. Frankie, he was a role model to me. He was a role to me in a way that I saw someone

Jillene Joseph (23:50):

That I did want to be like,

Speaker 3 (23:54):

I saw someone I didn’t want to be like, and there’s role models like that. Yes. There’s those role models out there in your life that, yeah, I see them. Those, they want to be like, you wanna, you know, copying what they’re doing, being like that. And then there’s sort of role models that were sure how not to be. And Mr. Frank was one of those Because sometimes he would just get so intoxicated that he would be out in his front yard and a blackout, no shirt on maybe just shorts, no shoes and socks on. And it’d be in a blackout and doing his cultural or some copying something that only his unconscious saw and his drunken blackout. So I want to say, is that yes. Oh, uh, Mr. Frank was someone who I did not want to be like yet. He was somebody who taught me about how to be, As I watched Mr. Frank and his drunk and blackout. No, I was just a small kid. How old was I? I was in second, third grade. I started to realize that drunk and blackout. He was actually reenacting and telling stories, Telling us the stories of his own experience in his life, but not only that, but he’s starting to tell stories about, uh, about bears,

Jillene Joseph (25:57):

Salmon, killer whale, Raven.

Speaker 3 (26:13):

I would sit there and I would just watch him. You know, unfortunately this happened all the time. That’s how much of an alcoholic he was. And I just can’t help it down now, but think about how much hurt and pain and trauma that he went through as a, as a, as a human being dude, I get to that point. But as a third, uh, in third grade, fourth grade, I would just sit there and watch Mr. Frank as reenact about these, your stories. And everybody else is making fun of beyond that. I was able to see that his talent stories and he want her to so much, hear me, hear me, hear me, notice me.

Speaker 3 (26:57):

And I was just a kid, third, fourth grade, noticing him watching him as he told stories, sharing with us, his real life story and moments within his life story. Um, I met Mr. Frank years later when I was an adult and Anchorage, Alaska, I was getting a coffee. And this, you probably say maybe about 15 years ago now. And I was up in Anchorage. I was going to coffee, uh, standing in line and in walks in, was Mr. Frank much older, more now sober, but it was, uh, it was, it had that look, you know, those ones, when you could tell that the alcohol and all these years of abused and his own demons and the trauma got to them and that trauma got you seeing it in their eyes.

Speaker 3 (28:51):

And that far away look at far away. Mr. Frank had that look, but I waved them over. It was my elder, Mr. Frank, come on in here, take this place right here in line, right in front of me. He walked up and just kind of looked at me, acknowledged me. And then I said, Mr. Frank, I don’t know if you remember me or not, but I was a young man who lived on the street in Southeast Alaska. I used to watch him. I just want to say Mr. Frank, I just want to say, thank you.

Speaker 3 (29:49):

Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for teaching. Thank you for teaching me how to tell stories and the value of the story and the value of the moment. Thank you for teaching me to pay attention to people no matter where they’re at, whatever condition they’re in. I want to say, thank you. I’m not Jewish. And he looked at me as if I was crazy for you. I don’t remember who you are, but he said, you’re welcome. You’re welcome. I said, can I buy you a cup of coffee? He says, yes, yes, sure. So I bought him that cup of coffee and he just stood there. When I was walking out, I looked back and he just was standing there looking at me, looking at me as if he was searching his memory as, or do I know this young man? What do I know him? And as I was walking out the door, I looked back again and then he looked at me. He goes, Oh, I remember you, your mother.

Speaker 3 (31:14):

She’s a nice lady. And I walked out, Mr. Frank has since passed on. I heard he passed on, on a park bench, up in Alaska. His children grew up to be beautiful people. There’s children grew up to be beautiful. People wanting to make something different for themselves other than what they grew up in and what they grew up in. Yeah. Role models are everywhere. And if we take a look and look at life in this way, as opposed to like this, as opposed to like this, yeah, I’m just here. I’m just here. Just sharing with you a little bit of stories, sharing with you a little bit of my story and those of you who are just joining us right now. Uh, my name is gene tag Yvan and we’re talking about Rwanda. I’ll start everywhere. And this is what the native wellness Institute, power hours, and, uh, sponsored by the noise foundation. We’re on program 291 week 52 in years, it’s been year central. We’ve been doing these things and we’ll be continuing to do these, this, this will be, um, part of our normal programming. Now, part of our normal programming

Speaker 3 (33:18):

Shoot, as, as, as you know, and I can’t help it, like talk about one of my main role models in my life is my mom, my mom, my mother, a man, powerful, you know, all those I got, I just got to feel fortunate to, you know, it’s like, because I have a mom and I feel fortunate that I have a mom that I grew up with a mom. I grew up with a dad as well. And I don’t know, that’s not the case for a lot of people. That’s not the case for a lot of people. So there’s some, one of those things. I mean, I, you know, having that gift and having that, that, that opportunity to be raised with a mom she’s still around. She’s powerful. My mom’s awesome. But taking, uh, I can’t take her for granted Because I’ll tell you this. My mom was raised without a mom.

Jillene Joseph (34:34):

Okay.

Speaker 3 (34:37):

My mom full blood Cherokee. She was raised born in Jay, Oklahoma raised in Zena, Oklahoma, small, small community. Her mother passed on like a month, two months after she was born from complications of birth of bringing her into the world. And I truly believe that that apparently she tried to have children before that, but it didn’t work out. But, but, uh, my grandmother, my mom’s mom, I have this belief that, that she was going to, no matter what, bring this child into the world, She loved this child so much that she was willing to sacrifice herself to give this child life.

Jillene Joseph (35:27):

Okay.

Speaker 3 (35:31):

And so my grandfather was a Woodman, was a woods and he had no idea on how do I raise this little baby? And so he went to my, my mother’s grandmother and said, here, can you raise this child, please? I can’t, I don’t know how, I don’t know. Wow. That’s what my grandmother or my mom’s grandmother took this town and raised her as her own as two’s kind of tough. I mean, some of those old, old elders Nando’s grandmas, they can be tough. Strict. Won’t let you get away with any of that. But she was a medicine person. She was a medicine person. And, um, she taught my mom about healing, collecting the herbs, working with people, working with the people.

Speaker 3 (36:48):

And, um, and one day I think as my mother, she told me this story, when we’re standing on the lab in Oklahoma, that she was raised that standing next to the Creek, wishing she, the swim at where she took us to go swimming as a young child, my brother and I, and the screen, she showed us up there on those Hills, right there in that area, right there, there’s no grave markers or anything, but that is where your grandmother, your grandfather and your, your relatives are buried there. And all it is is this the Hill. Now they can see no markers. As you told us about the story about how this whole area right here, this land area is where my grandfather grew tobacco. And I walked out there and I still saw the wild tobacco now. And it’s going, wow. These are the shoots, the children of the tobacco that my great, great grandfather grew. She told us all about the whole area there in Oklahoma, where she grew up at.

Speaker 3 (38:01):

And then my mom told us the story about how, when she was a young girl, about 13, that right next to the Creek, she pointed it out right there is where my grandfather, my grandmother fell over and she died in her arms. She died in her arms. My mother says she must have had a stroke or something, but she just stayed there for a couple of hours because nobody knew where they’re at no phones at the time. They just went by the light of the day. And it was, my grandfather went out there with the horse to fund and there, they found my grandmother and passed on and my mother holding her.

Speaker 3 (39:06):

No, no. I wonder what it would be like. You know, it’s like, um, I think it was like, uh, there’s some people there that they say that when somebody passes on there that, uh, they become live here. And then when you’re there and that moment where somebody passes on it’s like that energy or that business passed along, you know, some people space that way of the feather, the weight of a feather is equal to the weight that is lost when someone did pass this on, I can’t help. But think about how as my grandmother was being held by my mother at such a young age, that, that, and that moment, that energy, that light and that spirit was passed on to my mother.

Speaker 3 (39:58):

I believe it was, I believe it was. And so my mother, she grew, she went to nursing school, became a helper. Herself, became a healer herself in her own way. And it was one day as living in Bellingham, Washington, I was living in Bellingham, Washington. I walked into a Starbucks there and Belmont had Washington. I was in my early forties. I think somewhere around there and sitting in a chair was wasn’t mad, rugged clothing, rugged beer, you know, wrinkles in his space, his hands, his fingers were kind of bent. You can tell it served a harder life. And he sat there and he had a cane or a crutch on the floor. There must be something wrong with his leg in his crutch. You know, I noticed that he was native and he looked like he was Alaskan.

Speaker 3 (41:16):

I went up to him there in that Starbucks. I said, hello, uh, kind of looked up at me and didn’t say anything. Can I buy you a cup of coffee? And then he sat back and says, who the heck do think you are? You don’t even know me. You don’t know me. I’m not under you. So why are you offering me a cup of coffee? What do you want? What do you want? Just leave me alone. I didn’t even ask you to come over here. I didn’t ask you to bother me. Go away, just go away.

Speaker 3 (41:59):

Then when he said that, I said we try something. So I introduce myself and shake hands, going to change, going to change. And then what have you heard that his eyes kind of lit up and he looked at me. He says, who are you? What’s your name? I told them, [inaudible] take it back. You related to that nurse? She works there in the clinic. Yeah, Wilma. That’s my mom. That’s your mom. That’s your mother. Oh, sit down. But first before you sit down and go give me that coffee that you owed me. And they offered me. Cause I went and got a cup of coffee, sat in front of them. They wanted a couple of creamers and a sugar. I sat down because let me tell you something about your mom.

Speaker 3 (43:15):

She watches over me. Your mom. She’s like an angel. All those people on the streets. She watches over me. She said she always comes up to me. Dad, Dan, the son, his name was Dan. Gotta take care of your legs. You only got one left. Gotta take care of your leg, take care of your foot. And I looked underneath the table and shut off that crutch that he had. Wasn’t just for a leg that he was hurting. I noticed that he was missing his leg. He was missing his leg. Cause I put your mom. And let me tell you something about her.

Speaker 3 (43:59):

Every time I go into that clinic, she always greets me with dignity. She always greets me with dignity. She always greets me again today. I have to admit, I’ll go in that room over there. I’ll be writing. I’ll go in there, sit down. And about 10 minutes later, she’ll come in with a pan of warm water and soap and some rags just say, dad, you already have one foot left. You need to take care of it. You need to take care of your foot. Get down on our hands and knees. And she’ll like, take off my shoe or my boot take off my socks. And then she’ll put my foot in that pad. And then she’ll like, take the soap and start washing them up, wash them up. And the whole time she was telling me about how you need to take care of yourself.

Speaker 3 (45:06):

If your feet get hurt, then it’s going to affect the rest of you. And I know how grumpy you can be when you don’t feel good. And it starts with you to speak. Dan, essentially only have one foot. You got to take care of it. I’ll take care of it, but your mom would sit there and she would wash my foot and then she would like take and she would start cutting my toenails. I didn’t ask her to do that. Acting was kind of embarrassing, but she to sit there and just say, I’ll be quiet, dad, be quiet. She’ll cut my toenails. I gotta show you this. I remember my mother when my brother and I we’d get out of the bath, but she would sit there and she would take care of her feet. Tell us about how he needed to take care of our feet. She would cut her toenails. And to be honest with you, honestly, I stopped at that. That was only, that was just something my brother and I ever experienced from her that the other, she showed us. She showed her children taking care of us. But my mother

Speaker 3 (46:40):

It was that love to show to everyone That love. She showed everyone. So she took care of dad’s feet, Adam, you know, helping them out. And, but my dad sat there and told me this story by my mom. This is, I want you to sit to tell your mom. I said, hi. And it’s an honor to meet the son, such a nice Naty okay.

Speaker 3 (47:20):

To meet this, this young man of this lady who would take care of my, you know, help me this man who was came, man, who came up and offered me a cup of coffee out of nowhere. You’re telling your mom I shouldn’t do a good job with you. Yes, correct? Correct. So who in your life, who in your life are your role models? Influences you guide you, someone that you can, as you’re in there, you can be like, go, how would my mom do it? Or how would [inaudible] another role model of mine or how it gosh, name do it? What would he say at this time? It was and how it could change. Chris do this.

Speaker 3 (48:26):

Not only that I need to have patients out is that Cedar tree, how can that Cedar tree teach patients and strengthen that? Bear I of the Eagle, Raven, everything around you is your role model, but we need to start teaching ourselves to look through the world like this. Instead of this, we’ve got to start searching and looking for those things. Those beings out there, those spirits that are, are so willing to teach us. We’ve got to be opened ourselves to the possibility, to that possibility because those role models going to be the homeless man on the street for you teaching you something, it could be those, those nurses that out there doing their work, teachers, children, your dog, the weather, the water, the mountains.

Speaker 3 (49:39):

And how can you be a role model for yourself looking in the mirror? How can you be a role model for yourself looking into the mirror? Yeah. So I just want to say, thank you. Thank you for joining me today. As I just shared a few stories, shared a little bit of spirit with you and be aware of your own experience. Be aware of your story. As we walk through this world, because one day, one day I will be that elder I hope. And I know one day I will be that ancestor. So what can I do now? What’s my role now, what’s my role. Now, what story am I going to tell? What story am I going to tell with my life? Our life is a story. So with that, thank you for joining me in this moment. In this moment, in my story, I’m part of your story. You’re a part of mine and his 20 courage, just to, um, just to say one of the greatest, greatest things acknowledgements that we could ever say and out there in the world is simply to say, thank you.

Speaker 3 (51:06):

Wouldn’t say it enough. We don’t say it enough. So my name is Jean Pega [inaudible] and this is the native wellness power hour sponsored by the noise foundation. We’re on program 291, and this is week 52. I spent a year and I believe it’s just Sunday. We’re actually going to go on, is past the board as a native waters, uh, um, know team. And we’re going to do a special program on Sunday and acknowledgement of, uh, one year of these power hours that has been a year. What a story that is. And so with that, I just wanted to say blessings, blessings, blessings gonna change, gonna cherish Mado Salama McGee, which plan not Quianna Allah, uh, blessings, blessings, blessings. I want to leave a little early here because I gotta go right onto another, uh, uh, gathering workshop with, uh, the Chehalis peoples. So I’m gonna change. Thank you all. Thank you all.