Birthday 2026, 47 years

Courage tastes the way

sandalwood, palo santo and copal incense smell

I blow in the directions of all my relations

I use up all the best prayers to 

offer to Creator

and then realize so many more and

so much more are waiting for me

to pick up and ponder before

sending it all out to sea

grandmother ocean, grandfather sky

our parents, our gifts, our sources flowing by

sand dollars scatter over the beach

like so much currency

let go the ideologies

let go the theory and hypothesis

let go ideas and educated guesses

let go 

and settle into silence

and stillness

within

while the chaos ensues

while the fierce chanting for all the 

well known reasons

lifts up into the winds and is carried all 

around and around

and the chaos ensues

while 

I let go

sit with silence and stillness

let the names go

let the identities go

let the masks crumble

let it all drift out to sea

swallowed by waves

and it all dissipates

it all dissolves in the salt water

purified and ready to

take on 

brand new possibilities