The Northwest Indians lived in the land of abundance. The salmon seemed to leap into the pan, sans lemon, fileted upon a cedar plank, rich in good cholesterol, served with an abundance of berries sauces, Black, Blue, Boysen, Goose , Marion, Straw or Raspberry. Elk often came into the lodges and offered themselves up like the genetically engineered cows at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, to be feasted on. This was a time and a people who had such abundance that when they partied, they gave away all their material possessions. This was not a potluck, this was a conscious choice of giving all they had, the best and all the rest to all. It was called Potlatch.

These people so loved and appreciated each other they often had no words for you. It was always we, us, and ours.

There was no word for yesterday or tomorrow.

No one spoke of another, unless that person was present, and when someone died, they were not spoken of again.

They were present time only, appreciative of each moment and giving everything to that now.

They told stories of adventures, of those miracles that happened on the edge of their way of being. They inspired and revered the moment.

They appreciated the ease of how the cedar trees gave planks for shelter.

They appreciated the soft feel and fragrant smell of pine and cedar needles as floors and beds.

They honored gods of the clear rivers and were cleansed and freshened in the many waterfalls.

The things they labeled with names were words and phrases that sung with appreciation.

We cannot venture back to that time with anything but our imagination. Most of our salmon are in restaurants or markets; the elk have stopped the custom of volunteering for dinner, but the Northwest Indians themes of appreciation are one of my tenets of Curing Seriousitis™.

Our times are rich in choices and often challenging to appreciate. Given a present moment, our imagination can free our attention of judgments, and become curious as to how, where, when, and why our attention wanders into judgments.

With a new viewpoint, perhaps initiated from a point of origin or even a vanishing point, we can see and feel from a new place the appreciation of everything.

Nothing and everything is changing in the world. We only have control of our view point of how and why we are blessed with life.

Thank you for this moment. Share and enjoy.