Today we had the honor of traditional healer Herb Sam of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Disctrict III visit us and perform a smudging ceremony to cleanse and purify our new space. He also gave an offering of tobacco to the spirits asking for protection and guidance for our building and program. Our offering was accepted by all, and we look forward to the wisdom we will receive as we move forward. The morning was deeply moving and full of powerful positive energy. Healer Herb also spent time speaking with us about the history of smudging and tobacco offerings and gave us the ever-important advice that the best thing we and our students can strive for is to "be good human beings". We are deeply honored and blessed to have had Herb visit and we look forward to visiting with him in the future.
0 Comments
We would like to pass on a big THANK YOU to all the family and friends who stopped by to share some holiday cheer with us. It was a pleasure to talk with all of you, share a few laughs and some good food. We could tell the students at Empower enjoyed showing off their program to you. Wednesday, 23 November was our Annual Thanksgiving Meal. Students planned the menu together earlier in the week. They spent some time cooking deserts the day before. On Wednesday, students broke into groups of either “cooks” or “set-up” where they either worked in the kitchen preparing the feast, or stayed back and worked on setting up the dinner table, prep line, and making decorations. At dinner, the feast was all laid out o the table. It was magnificent. We all shared one thing we are thankful for and then enjoyed our meal “family style” with everyone helping to serve each other. The afternoon was spent on “recovery” and gastrointestinal rest. The AMPower Studio is well on its way! We were so fortunate to receive an Achievement and Integration grant to fund a recording studio for our school for students who are interested in learning about playing, recording, and/or producing music. We have some very talented students and look forward to what Empower Productions creates.
We spent some time today discussing Star Qualities: what they are, which ones we feel we possess, and which ones others see in us. Each student was provided with a list of Star Qualities and was charged with picking at least one that they feel exemplifies themselves. Then each student passed around their paper and had each of their peers comment with a Star Quality they felt represents that person. Many were surprised to find that their peers found Star Qualities in them, that they didn't realize they possessed or show. Each student created a canvas to display all of the Star Qualities their peers chose for them and one they picked for themselves. (*not all displayed in this pic)
|
AuthorThis page brought to you by the Empower Staff. Categories
All
|