This morning I had the privilege of participating in my first smudging ceremony. I've seen other smudging ceremonies at large events, but have never actually gotten to smudge myself.
An Eagle feather went around with our smudging bowl this morning . The eagle is one of the seven teachings of Indigenous people in what we now call Canada. It represents love. My colleague at this SiG workshop who was leading us in this practice picked it because she felt love was something that we can leave out of our work and that we can be uncomfortable talking about. (Agreed)
It was a great grounding. I found myself thinking back to Marian Tompson's idea of heart level friends. This refers to people that we meet and have such an immediate connection with that it feels like we immediately connect with our hearts and not just our heads. It's hard to even say exactly what a heart level friend is, except you know when you feel it. This practice of smudging along with the eagle teaching felt like it was binding us together at that heart level.
The smudging helped to cleanse and leave space for the love. It reminded me of the importance of anchoring into love in everything that we do.
Being a Force for Good 
