Honoring and Acknowledgements
To be in right relationship with the past and those who have come before me I acknowledge and honor the following for their contribution to my life, my work, and my spirit.
I have deep appreciation for my ancestors, the ones who have walked this earth before me, who hold me up so that I may hold others up. These ancestors support me by way of my blood, by adoption and by Spirit.
Through my adoption I honor my maternal line who comes to the States from Germany. My grandfather and his family built churches and homes across chicago, including a church that withstood the great Chicago Fire. I honor my paternal line, my grandfather and grandmother who came from the farms of Ireland. From my grandmother Renee I learned of compassion and prayer. She lived to be one month away from 107 and never had a bad thing to say about anyone. She prayed deeply for people, places, and events. I honor her strength and the love she held within her for over a century of life.
I honor by birth mother for holding so much love that she could give me to another family to love. For having the courage and strength to choose to stop a lineage cycle of wounding. I honor by birth father and his lineage that I know little about.
Thank you to my first teachers of the shamanic way, Susan Lipschutz and Tom Voitas, that I found a spiritual home for my healing Catholic heart. Through them I learned of the wisdom of Don Oscar Miro-Quesada and the teachings of the Mesa and the Quechua traditions. And for Mateo Magee who I continue to sit at the feet of in continual apprenticeship of this walk with the earth and knowing my place within it. It is this altar and personal way of being that has guided me through most of my spiritual growth.
I honor my teachers from across this globe in addition to those on this beautiful North America.
Thank you to Rosita Arvigo and her teachers, Don Elijio Panti, Ms Hortense, Ms Beatrice of the Maya tradition who shared their wisdom and lineage of abdominal and spiritual healing that I have gained so much. And to IxChel, the Maya Goddess of healing, that welcomed my soul to be at Home with her. Deep gratitude to the beautiful healing waters of IxChel.
I am deeply grateful to Jyoti Ma, the Center for Sacred studies, and it's many teaching containers for the wisdom of many other indigenous traditions and spiritual pointings that have continued to support the flowering of my spirit.
And to the many other teachers who have guided me: Flordemayo, Felicity, Mooji, Dr Dispenza, all of whom have connected me to the sacred teachings of this earth through sacred indigenous and time honored teachings.
I acknowledge and honor this sacred land that is Colonially called Chicago, Illinois.
Chicago is part of the traditional homelands of the Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi,) Myaamia, Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) Očhéthi Šakówiŋ nations. Many other tribes also called this area home. Indigenous people continue to live in the region, and Chicago is home to the country’s third-largest urban Indigenous community, which still practices its heritage and traditions, including care for the land and waterways.
With deep gratitude and reverence.
In reciprocity I thank you.