Nourishment

She says, "When you bring out from the heart a wonderful being,
it is all from the Earth, goes to the Earth. The spirit blooms
and we have this Light feeding the root. We have to remember
our source of nourishment, or we will starve."
--Elizabeth Woody, quoting a great-aunt in “Plateau Women” in Luminaries of the Humble (1994).

Elizabeth Woody is Oregon’s Poet Laureate. Woody is of Yakima/ Warm Springs/ Wasco/ Navajo descent, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon. Despite the ongoing genocide of her people by the US government (Obama is silent, day after day, about the excessive force being used against native people protesting the oil pipeline), she exudes quiet confidence. She speaks gently but firmly, and people lean forward to hear. In this photo, she addresses one of many public meetings of people in Oregon bringing their hearts and minds together to cope with daily revelations of what looms ahead in the Trump years.

Woody reminds us that we have to remember our source of nourishment: the earth, the light, beauty. “We each possess a song, mystery, and the sacred,” she says. And we are not in control. We have never been in control. The measure of our worth is how we treat the people we meet, how we reflect the light.