Medicines ensure our prayers are heard
By Richard Wagamese
In the morning the smell of traditional medicines fills our home. Smudging, the act of blessing and being blessed is the way we start our days. The scent of it lingers and it reminds us throughout the day that we began our walk spiritually. It’s always a good reminder.
The smell of medicines is calming. It centers you. When life gets a tad wonky and feels like it might come off the rails, a wisp of sage, cedar, sweetgrass of tobacco will remind you that you gave thanks for the condition of your life. It brings you back to the calm you started your day in.
There are three strands in a braid of sweetgrass. They represent spiritual qualities meant to guide our lives. When a person gathers this medicine, they pray, the center themselves on well being and prosperity and give thanks for these already being present in their lives.
Once the grass is gathered, the bottom end is tied either by red yarn or by a twist of grass itself. Then, slowly and mindfully, the grass is braided in three strands that can be anything the gatherer chooses. Love, hope and gratitude, maybe. Or faith, courage, wisdom.
The act of being mindful of those three qualities empowers the braid with that energy. As the top nears and the braid gets thinner the very thinnest part is twisted together in a knot to complete it. The knot is how we end a prayer. Thank you. Migwetch. Even ‘amen.’
When someone offers a braid of sweetgrass to another, it is the offering of a prayer. It is extending the act of mindfulness that went into its gathering through sharing. Medicine is a gift and only gets stronger if it is treated as a gift and given away.
To smudge with it, to bless your home and your family, is to continue the prayerful act of gathering. It is a circle that completes itself when the smoke trails off and vanishes. The elders say that point of vanishing is where the ancestors and Creator sit to hear your prayer.
Prayers are always heard. That is the gift of medicine. They carry our prayers to Spirit and they are always heard. When we smell medicines in our home we remember that we are protected, nurtured and loved in everything. We walk more gracefully and we treat the world more gently. We become prayer.