Grief, Gratitude & Call to Prayer — Day 17 of Simplicity
By: Mike Rusert
Tags: Indigenous, Prayer, Advent, Spirituality, Water

Day Seventeen — Gratitude — 25 Days of Simplicity

“Nibi (Water) Walks are Indigenous-led, extended ceremonies to pray for the water. Every step is taken in prayer and gratitude for water, our life giving force.

We walk for the water, and as we heal the water we heal all of life. We are not a protest. We are a prayer for the water.” (Read more at NibiWalk.org)

July 2016, I was humbled to join Sharon Day and other Nibi Walkers in prayer for the Water. Together, we walked the length of Minnehaha Creek, from the mouth at Lake Minnetonka to the confluence at the Mississippi River, not far past the Falls. Every step a prayer.



Sharon Day is an Anishinaabe Grandmother and Water Protector. She along with a committed group of water walkers have walked thousands of miles in ceremony. All in gratitude for

Mississippi

Ohio

James

Red River of the North

Potomac

Cuyahoga

And so many more.

All in prayer for the Water.



Water is alive. Water is life. Step by step along these beautiful and vulnerable bodies of living water really makes this truth clear.



My time in ceremony along Minnehaha Creek filled me with both gratitude and grief.



Hearing the Anishinaabe songs. Seeing the Eagle Staff. Smelling the sage and cedar. All of these spiritual practices tied to the land. Tied to the Anishinaabe people. Rooted.



I grieved because I was becoming more and more aware of how uprooted my life has been. There is such disconnect from the stories and practices and places of my ancestors. So many of them whitewashed away for American materialism and the monoculture of Whiteness.



I wonder, can what has been lost be recovered? Some, but not all.



Can that deep relationship with water, earth, creature and Spirit be restored? Yes, and it’s going to require lots of healing.



The photo above is of us, Water Walkers, gathering at the confluence where a closing ceremony was held. Stories were shared from our prayer journey along Minnehaha’s banks, and water, which had been drawn from the creek’s mouth and carried so carefully in a copper basin, was returned to the river with shouts and song.



I am so filled with gratitude that I was able to pray this way for the water. I’m so humbled by the grace of Sharon and other Anishinaabe women who welcomed me and other descendants of settlers to join in ceremony. I’m grateful for their generosity — the wisdom they so carefully shared and how it created a longing in me to connect more deeply to earth and ancestor.



And, I’m grateful for the water. Life flowing in and alongside all of our bodies. Thank you, Water. May you know healing through our good care, and may that healing spill over to us all.



Speaking of healing… Today, at 2pm, Sharon will be among hundreds praying for the water. There is a Water Protector Gathering of Solidarity and Prayer for the Mississippi and Willow River, and so many other streams and lakes and wetlands that are under immediate threat from Enbridge’s Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline. (Details for the prayer gathering below)



Please, join in following the lead of the indigenous women, Water Protectors, who will guide us in prayer and care for the water.



What a gift. Thank you, Water!

-Mike Rusert (Intertwiner, person — like you — made mostly of water!)