This body of work is a human story, one that follows the Ayaawx (the Tsʹmsyen word for ancestral law), which has, at its centre, respect. Respect not as an obligation or a duty, but as a spiritual energy that clears the way, purifies, and restores balance after conflict.            

This book, though some may categorize it as a memoir, is more accurately an inquiry, one that brings human conflict into the transformational presence and energy of the supernatural and nature.

I present three distinct threads. One: my story, which includes silence, the experiential interweaving of past and present, and the layering of natural and supernatural and inner and outer dimensions. Two: paintings and poems that express the essence of experience that cannot be defined. And three: my philosophical reflections on Krishnamurti’s writings on inquiry, which influenced my insights.

This web of threads is my adaptation of a delivery style used by many wisdom speakers in the Feast Hall and in ceremony, one that can open the listener to profound learn­ing, transformative learning. In Feast Hall style, the speakers do not provide bridges between thoughts; instead, they leave space for the listener to make the connections from one concept to the next.

It is my intention in using this writing style to invite you into the gift of the Ayaawx; into the power of our Feast Halls; and into relationship with yourself, with others, and with the supernatural.–Excerpted from Singing to the Darkness by Patricia June Vickers. © by Patricia June Vickers. Published by HARP Publishing The People’s Press. harppublishing.ca