Medicine of the Cherokee Quotes

“My first lessons were to respect all life, protect Mother Earth, and nurture the plants and herbs. I look whenever I go home to the Reservation to see if comfrey, fennel, catnip, rosemary, and many of the plants that we care for are still growing in the backyard. Sure enough, they are always there, reminding me that life does go on.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“A small boy searches for a way to explain life with all its complexities. His Cherokee grandfather smiles and explains life in all its simplicities. Many years later, another small boy talks about the simple things of life, while his father describes how complex life is today. Inside, the father feels the not-so-distant words of his grandfather speaking softly: You are not just alive, you are part of all life itself. You are kin to all things, and everything has life . . . and memory. Things have a way of coming full circle—as a way of completing the Circle, and creating opportunities for life, love, growth, feeling, and learning.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“In Indian Medicine, energy is a continuum that does not change. We as energy beings have our own special vibration, and we connect with other energy by a process of phasing our energy into our center or spirit self, then emerging or opening our hands to receive the energy of the Universal Circle. Instead of seeing energy as just being work, the elder teachers consider it associated with each of the Four Directions as physical, mental, spiritual, and natural. It can be directed, interfered with, and taught.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“The universe is made up of a balance among all of these things and a continuous flow or cycling of this energy. We have a sacred relationship with the universe that is to be honored every moment of every day, through our thoughts, intentions, and actions. All things are connected, all things have life, and all things are worthy of respect and reverence.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“When we do harm to the Earth Mother, we do harm to ourselves.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“I learned the lesson of acceptance. The spiritual power entrusted in me was more important than the person trying to take the power away from me. I learned something about the lesson of the opposites, and was able to look at things both ways and in the third person. The Elder said, as I returned that evening, “It is time for all of us to evolve to a higher level of understanding about these things, in a spiritual way. Find ways to understand the fears that others face. They wear a mask, you don’t have to, unless you have something to hide.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“One of the important lessons for me to learn was having the negative energy move around me, instead of internalizing and reacting to criticisms.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“My mother, Ruth Rogers Garrett, taught me many Cherokee stories. She taught through example to be a helper to everyone you ever meet. She taught me that everyone is special in this life, that love has no boundaries, and that boundaries cannot be set on love.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“This story of Indian Medicine begins with the many stories that were shared by many elder Native American teachers. There is a simple innocence about the complex nature of Nature. As a Nachez Medicine Elder once said to me, “It (Nature) is as it always was, but we as humans try to change it to make it ours. In fact, we are the younger, ’cause Nature was here before us. So we must honor Nature, and in doing so, we honor our ancestors who realized the critical balance we have with all things.”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship

“The wisdom of the past becomes the bridge to the future, like the rising and setting of the Sun in a continuous motion of ageless beauty. Healing becomes the understanding of a calm spirit, connecting the memory of our ancestors and all living things, experiencing a sense of oneness in the energy-flow of choice and presence through unity of mind, body,”
― J.T. Garrett, Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship