Bird Droppings February 4, 2026
Another thought as winter sets in and my feet are getting cold

“Good words do not last long unless they amount to something.” Chief Joseph

We have had some nights here this week with temperatures below 20 degrees. Not sure whether to start building a fire in the fireplace or crank up the heaters. With my mother-in-law’s birthday celebration this weekend, we hope we will not have to postpone again, even with rumors of icing and snow floating around, and with news and weather stations running snow watches as part of their programs. Just hard to consider it is winter when it was near seventy yesterday. Last night, however, we had rain, and today fog and drizzle. There will be no crickets and tree frogs chirping for a few days.

I have been drawn to Native Indian wisdom for some time. Perhaps it started when I heard my father tell the first story of “Little Strong Arm” as a child. My father had been infatuated with Indians from my earliest memory, and growing up, I was immersed in it. Indian lore books, stories, and even artifacts as my father traveled through the West and South America. Many of my current readings are based on Native Indian sources.

“All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.” Chief Seattle

My own life’s journey has had many paths and trails, and, as I look back, twists and turns that seem to guide and direct its flow. I was fortunate to meet a co-worker from the Creek Nation when I took a job. Through him, I was taken into the group of Creeks and Cherokee who worked at the Okmulgee Indian Mounds National Monument. I participated in ceremonies and numerous activities. I was witness to spiritual aspects of a culture many may never see. My good friend’s grandfather was the medicine man for the Creek Nation.

“We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God….” Chief Joseph

“From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things – the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals – and was the same force that had been breathed into the first man.” Chief Luther Standing Bear

About twenty-four years ago, I was given the name Kent Nerburn, an author of numerous books on Native American Spirituality and on wisdom in general. I have used Kent’s thoughts many times in my writing and in my daily reflections. Several years back, a good friend gave me a smudge stick, a wrapped bundle of cedar and desert sage, which was used as incense. Each small piece in my life has led me to where I am now. Walking out about several mornings back, I watched clouds moving in a clear sky—wispy patterns of white illuminated by the smile of a moon.

We each have a pathway we travel on, and as I speak with high school students daily, it is often hard to say, ‘This is where you go or be one day.’ As I grow older and see how each little minute piece alters the journey ever so subtly, ever so gently. I look back at conversations I have been involved in or books I have read and now see how they influenced me. I think back to the people I have met along the way each day. How have they impacted me or affected how I see life?

“Death will come, always out of season.” Big Elk

“Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new, sweet earth, and the Great Silence alone!” Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, Ohiyesa

Several months back, I watched a TV movie on Wounded Knee, and Dr. Eastman was the physician on the reservation when the wounded and dying were brought in from the Wounded Knee massacre. He went on to be a prolific writer and lecturer around the country. I was thinking along these lines one morning as I walked the beach on Cumberland Island, watching the sun rise and looking down the beach both ways as far as I could see, not a person other than me. The waves were the sole noise hitting the beach. Even the seabirds were quiet as the sun rose brilliantly.

“Continue to contaminate your own bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.” Chief Seattle

Reading the news each day makes me wonder if we are not close to suffocation in our sleep, as Chief Seattle warned. So much is based on greed and money. Someone not concerned about the future, and or anyone but themselves. I sit working with kids who are similar in their personalities, focused only on themselves. I wonder why? Recently, I researched the concept of Generation Y. Children born approximately 1985 through 1995, and the idea of self-centeredness is in many of the definitions. The societal norms of capitalism and consumerism seem to drive that point of focus. I wonder if many of the disorders of children today are not culturally derived.
Some will say it is nutrition, yet is it a lifestyle that has contributed to that nutritional deficit or overload? We are directed to fast food as an alternative and as an aid in our quest to grab a few more minutes out of a day, be more profitable, buy more things, and take more pieces of life. Perhaps it is seeing everything as having a dollar value, and or as a commodity. In some recent reading, the term ‘cyberhuman’ was used. We see ourselves as prosthetics, not as humans. We are simply something to be added to or deleted from.

“As a child, I understood how to give; I have forgotten that grace since I have become civilized. I lived a natural life, whereas I now live an artificial one. Any pretty pebble was valuable to me then, every growing an object of reverence.” Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, Ohiyesa

We strip our children of their childhood and turn them into consumers to buy all the odds and ends we have built for us in plants overseas. We take away innocence and give back standardization. We deplete imagination and creativity and offer packaged curricula so that all can be more easily tested and graded. It is so sad that Native Indian thinkers of over a hundred years ago saw this and knew this, and we are just now starting to pay attention. Please take a moment to think about our friends and families in harm’s way around the world, and keep them on your mind and in your heart, namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related)

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