Your Choice: Pick it up or not

A couple of my native American Friends explained the concept of picking up what others lay down. In a nutshell, it works like this: "I choose (or refuse) to pick up what you just laid down." and "Will you choose (or refuse) to pick up what i just laid down."

It's a conversational and spiritual rule, having to do with choose to be responsible (or not) to what other people feel. As a minister, sometimes I HAVE to be responsible (my choice) for what others feel, it's my calling. BUT, I simply cannot be made responsible for past hurt, or the mistakes of those who came before me. I spent the first year of my service in Southern Ohio spinning my wheels as I tried to make up for the choices of the Directors who came before me. It wasn't until I was able to begin spawning new programs that healing actually took place (from my perspective) so I'm guessing that what i'm about right now, and in a way, what we're all about.

Can you change the past? No. Can you heal the past? Yes, but only by being aware of it as you walk into the future work you have been given. It's Whakepapa ("fakeypapa"), a Maori Native concept of ancestry whereby a person respects, remembers, and learns from their ancestors, keeping their spirits close, while they journey their own road.

So do i choose to pick up what has been put down before me? Not all of it...but I can pick up what I am able to, and only that much. I refuse to allow myself to fall back into workaholism and ubalanced living, and it's been nice to work in a place where people are willing to give me that freedom and that time.