Life has a way of sometimes playing tricks on us. We spin around and we are older. I look in the mirror and expect to see the girl I used to be staring back at me. I see a woman with a few lines and a few gray hairs. I'm not the person that I used to be. I'm not the girl that I used to be. But.. I've learned so much. I've learned that friends can betray you. I've learned that the man that promised to always love you, sometimes won't. I've learned that children grow up and you are not as important to them. They grow up much too quickly.
I have learned that all politicians are not honest and that wars are not always fought for the right reasons. I have learned the the hungry are not always feed and the naked are not always clothed. I have learned that hate and bitterness eat the soul out of you. I have realized that there are some friends that WILL fight for you. I have come to believe that one day, a man will love me and never leave. I have hope that my children were raised right and won't stray very far from their teaching. I BELIEVE that if I feed who I can and tend to whom I am able,,,, That I will have made a differance. And the wrongs in my life will be made right. It IS a good life. Send in the clowns.

This song makes me weep. The scenes are from the television show " Into The West". It makes me think of my family on Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. The poorest reservation in the country. Most homes have no electricity or running water. Where the life expectency is the lowest and rate of alcoholism is the highest. Where the battle of Wounded Knee was fought. A proud people that were wronged. A people that I am proud to be a part of.

Thank you to all who told me how to do this. Have you ever heard a song that haunted you? This one does it to me. It's probably the loneliest song that I know. It's about two people that worked hard their whole lives. They ended up with nothing, just each other...For a while. Do any songs haunt you?

Gulf coast highway, he worked the rails
He worked the rice fields with their cold dark wells
He worked the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico
The only thing we've owned is this old house here by the road

And when he dies he says he'll catch some blackbird's wing
And we will fly away to heaven
Come some sweet blue bonnet spring

She walked through springtime when I was home
The days were sweet, our nights were warm
The seasons changed, the jobs would come
The flowers fade, and this old house felt so alone
When the work took me away

And when she dies she says she'll catch some blackbird's wing
And she will fly away to heaven
Come some sweet blue bonnet spring

Highway 90, the jobs are gone
We kept our garden, we set the sun
This is the only place on Earth blue bonnets grow
And once a year they come and go
At this old house here by the road

And when we die we say we'll catch some blackbird's wing
And we will fly away to heaven
Come some sweet blue bonnet spring

Yes when we die we say we'll catch some blackbird's wing
And we will fly away together
Come some sweet blue bonnet spring

I love Saturdays on blogstream. Going from blog to blog and listening to music. I have NO clue how to post stuff like that or I would join you. There are times that I REALLY feel old but then I think of music...and I'm grateful to be my age. I guess that I was a Hippie. I KNOW that I was a hippie. I grew up in the 60's and the 70's. For the most part, hippies were peaceful and loving.( My group was anyway). But oh the music in those days... I was lucky enough to go to some awesome concerts. We would all pile in Johnny's Chevy van and it really WAS decorated with Peace signs and flowers. My hair was to my waist and I would always wear a long dress with an empire waist. Sometimes a headband. I laugh when I remember us. We really thought that we were something. Sometimes we would hitchhike to a concert. The word was much differant then. A crazy murdered wouldn't pick you up. It would scare me to death to think of anyone hitching a ride now. There was a time that I made Kevin a list of all the people that I have been lucky enough to see in Concert. I was LUCKY... I saw... Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and The Doors.( They were all at a big concert In Atlanta and Jim Morrison was so high that he couldn't even play.) I saw Elvis, The Moody Blues, Grand Funk Railroad, Joe Cocker, Jethro Tull, The Stones, Joan Baez, Sly and the Family Stone., Country Joe and The Fish,Mountain, Joni Mitchell, The Allman Brothers, Edgar Winters and White Trash, Santana ( their FIRST go round), Neil Diamond,John Denver, Jim Croce, Herman's Hermits and so many more... I wish that I had known then to make a journal of everyone. There are times when I feel that time is slipping away from me. All I have to do is remember though, and I feel lucky. I AM lucky.. They are GOOD memories.

I posted a Native American prayer yesterday and it made me think of the stories that my grandmother told me when I was young. It makes me angry at myself that I didn't listen more. As a child, you think that you have forever. But you don't. I DO remember some of the stories and legends. I remember several of the herbal mixtures that she used to treat illness. I only remember a few words in Lakota, which is the tribe I am descended from. The Sioux ( or Dakota ) nation consisted of several tribes. They were The Wahpekute, Mdewakantanwon,Wahpetonwan
Yankton, Nakota, Lakota and Oglala. Those unfamiliar words flowed off of my Grandmothers tongue. There were a few famous Sioux Chiefs. Little Village Sitting Bull ( Sitting Bull) was the Sioux leader at the Battle of The Little Big horn. There was Red Cloud, who was arrested and killed by Whites after he surrendered, and there was Chief Crazy Horse who was Lakota. Crazy Horse was 33 years old when he was killed. I found this instructions for living last night. I wish that I had thought more about it the last few weeks. I didn't though. It may be a good thing for everyone to follow.

Friend do it this way- that is, whatever you do in life, do the very best you can with both your heart and mind.
And if you do it that way,
The Power of the Universe
will come to your assistance,
if your heart and mind are in Unity.
When one sits in the hoop of the people,
one must be responsible because
all of creation is related.
And the hurt of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor of one is the honor of all.
and whatever we do effects everything in the Universe.

If you do it that way- that is
if you truely join your heart and mind
as One- Whatever you ask for
that's the way it's going to be.

Passed down from White Buffalo Calf Woman.