Feeding the fire is an important art of life in the native North American traditions. As an artist, writer, or as a guy on the assembly line at Generous Motors, the passions in our life feed our inner spirit; our inner fire. When someone witnesses what we do with our passion and make positive and favorable remarks, it feeds our inner fire. Passion for life, passion for our hobbies, passion for our craft keeps us young, vital and engaged with our inner spirit and with our outer lives. It is also the way of The People to feed the fire so it is there always for warmth, cooking, heating the stones for the sweat lodge, and a place to come together and share their life stories.
Several years ago now, I was with a friend in the historic Folsom, California. We wandered into Betty’s Turquoise Shop and while in that store, I heard this wonderful, haunting music that touched me to the core, piping through the sound system. I asked the man behind the counter what it was and who was performing. He told me it was the Native North American flute played by a local Grammy winning artist named Mary Youngblood. Thus was born a new passion in my life. I guess now I know it was probably somewhere hidden in my gene pool.
Before I left Betty’s, I had purchased an A minor red cedar river flute made by the master Stephan DeRuby and the CD I had heard by Mary Youngblood. I was hooked. Now I have travelled with my flutes to many places including the gorge of the Niagara River where I played in the woods above the great rapids. I also played my river flute in the sacred Ojibwa Petroglyph Park in Ontario, on the shores of McInnes Lake and that is where I want my ashes scattered when I pass.
Today I have a collection of flutes that may number 14 in total. Recently I was at a Powwow in Sebastian and there was a remarkable fellow who knows all the makers of my collection and he had several dozen flutes on display. I ended up buying a flute that had started life as first growth Sequoia then had been part of a barn for a very long time and finally had ended up as an end post in a Napa Valley winery. The flute maker had been given the post to use to make a flute for the donor and had ended up making several out of the post. I have the last one. It is a beautiful airy sounding F# minor flute with a beautiful carved cedar bear for the “bird” over the sound holes.
Our passions are there, buried inside of each of us waiting for the trigger that will release them to be experienced and embraced and integrated into our lives. Our passions feed our inner fire and keep us young and vital.
This evening while I waited for the last load of laundry I listed to Mary Youngblood’s Feed the Fire. A lovely tune but I could not find it on you tube or anywhere. The lyrics, which I will try to capture off my iTunes copy, start like this:
He wandered, he wandered far from home
Out to get, out to be alone
Adventure waited and dreams to find
Left the Rez, left it behind
On his way to follow his heart’s desire
To find that scared place
And to Feed the Fire
It sounds a little like my own spirit journey. The tune is available on iTunes.
So as I sit here tonight outside the cabin at the “Hotel California” my head and heart are full of the music of the flute as I look forward to where my journey will take me. And, I look forward to riding this rode with passion, integrity, and an open heart. The fog of the late afternoon has lifted and the air is warm again. Warm as the sound of Mary’s flute.
Here is the tune I first heard in Betty’s Turquoise Shop.
Other Native American music
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| The first DeRuby River Flutre |
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| View from the Deck at My Home near the Petroglyphs Park |
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