Grandmother was working with a group of her students to improve the postulating of our ideal “days” in a practice called “Creating My Day.” She asked us what we had been using and integrating of all that she had been teaching us about the brain. One person said, “Well, journaling and creating our days.” And I said that I felt that I was writing a “to do” list and not engaging myself. Of course, since we were where we were, and not arrived at where our written statements proclaimed where we wanted to be, she asked “are you writing what you are feeling, or are you writing a shopping list?”

She reminded us that in all that she had taught us, in all that we have listened to in the teachings about the brain, about human behavior, and even in sales and business training, we have to engage our hearts and our minds, or the universe just hears a drone of words, with no direction and no action. To create my day as written in my journaling, it must first be alive in our hearts and minds.

No Ounce of Doubt…

Many people know that when we really want something very much, our emotions and feelings get involved. Our hearts are pounding, our pulse is racing, we are many degrees warmer and we are completely involved in the process, and it happens. When there is no ounce of doubt and every cell in my body is committed to the completion of a project or to acquiring an end, so it is. Creating my day is exactly that.

Grandmother taught us that to create your day, one needs to prepare the day with our passions and desires of how we want the day to go and with who we truly are; with what is most important for us. What we truly desire. She gave us an assignment to put into action the changes that we needed to make in our lives so that we would be ready for our new lives here in the west.

Create Days of “Havingness”…

So I tried that, but my words were folding in on themselves and resulting in the lack or dearth rather than the completion of what I was creating that day. I was lost in words that said that I wanted to have something, meaning that I did not have it, or that I wanted to resolve a situation, which only confirmed that I had a situation. And she taught us to use circular words, so that we state to Creator and the Universe that we already exist in abundance and that we celebrate completions of activities and projects, etc. in our lives. I realized, that I had been creating my day already, which is why I had all this lack and chaos and unhappiness in my life. I was creating days of lack and unhappiness! Talk about an eye opener. We are already co-creators! I realized that all I had to do was shift my perspective and implement the discipline of observing what I was thinking and feeling as I was writing. In this way we create our day.

Observe our thoughts and hearts…

So the next morning, Grandmother instructed her students to sit by the creek where we were staying in Sedona, meditate, observe our thoughts and hearts, and then write our action plan to make the difference and turn the corner in our lives to resolve the programs that were detrimental not only to us as individuals, but also to our entire circle. Create the day, the life that brings life.

When we arrived there the next morning, the blue jays were quite raucous, and I had a wonder-filled time at the river and baptized myself anew, as free of past pain. Then Grandmother came and asked how we were doing on our assignment. What change had we affected, how had we created our day. I froze up, tongue tied, unsure of and doubting myself whether I had accomplished anything that she had asked.

Create “In this day…”

My friend could not wait to ask Grandmother to hear what he had written and help him. His words were heart-felt and addressed the deepest part of who he is and what he wanted to transform. And that was what Grandmother pointed out, that his words expressed that he did not have what he was looking for, that he was lacking, and so she told us that was why she hurried over because Crow Mother had come calling to her, bringing the words that would make all the difference in how we created our day. “In this day,” Crow Mother called out, “In this day…”

I Create My Day…

And Grandmother gave a whole way of wording for him to say what was in his heart, and for us all:

I create my day.

In this day I am joyful, respectful, nurturing, pleasant, kind, and clear-minded. In this day I celebrate my total transformation. My Being is a blessing to all, the source of all things brings into this day. This day I am experienced in my Godly magnificence. In this day I am loyal to all my commitments. In this day I celebrate total success in the ideal of being the ultimate reflection of God. In this day I emanate love to all creation. This day my eyes behold 1,000 beautiful reflections of you in my life. This day I will touch at least 100 sacred objects. In this day I hold myself in high esteem. My laughter, my words, my joy is what I bring to this day. In this day( and list here the “to do” list of all the things that you wish to accomplish).

When he was complete, I asked Grandmother how I did. She said that I had written my day very well except for 2 very important things. One was that I had not addressed my relationship with my beloved directly. And that was the most important thing that I had to transform, how I look to him, to men specifically, and others to validate myself. That I give and do not receive, thinking I had to prove and make myself good enough to be worthy of respect and love. This is how I have taught my beloved and all others to treat me. This is how I had created my day for a long time.

Create the day that is “me”…

I had said that I am a whole person and have everything I need to make decisions. Well, I weakened that statement without having specifics to talk about. For a strong, complete statement, say “I am whole.” However, this did not address receiving respect, love, kindness, and consideration in my relationship. In this day I allow myself to be loved. So, the statement that said it best for me, and that I celebrate and can engage with my emotions is:

This day my relationship with my beloved is love reciprocating itself.

In one of my statements in creating my day, I included being as Ata’ya Itse’yi, my Cherokee name. Grandmother advised that now I needed to describe and define who that is and that I probably had elements of that description throughout my journaling, so to go back through and draw a very clear and specific end result of “me” - this has been an ongoing and exciting creation.

This sharing is a small portion of the magnificence and generosity of our Grandmother and how she shares herself with us. I will be writing more.

Ata’ya Itse’yi
© Mary A. Smith, 2006