Winter Count

My family and I just returned from a week of roadtripping through South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and we dipped a toe into Wyoming. We logged 2,000 miles and saw the Corn Palace, Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Carhenge, and lots of grassland in between. If you are on Instagram with me @gingerrothhaas, you can see photos from our trip and my highway boredom creativity in matching songs to a few of our stops.

Today, I want to share with you something that struck me at the Lakota Museum at Crazy Horse. It was the tradition of "Winter Count."

The Lakota Native Americans marked a new year with the first snowfall. In South Dakota, the first snow represented the end of one year and the beginning of a new year.

Elders gathered on this new year's day to recall the major events of the past year. Each Elder shared their memory of a significant event. Together, they would decide on a single image that captured the memories of the year. That image would be sketched onto a buffalo hide.

The hide was called "Winter Count" and was assigned to a "Winter Count Keeper" who would lead the storytelling of past years. The history of the tribe was captured on this one hide and became a storytelling prompt and a treasured visual history for generations to come.

This got me thinking about my clients who don't like to journal with written words, but might enjoy creating an image to summarize a day, an event, feelings, or chapters of life. Explore this idea and see if it resonates with you. Experiment with journaling in sketches, watercolors, or other artistic expressions. When I asked my teenagers how they would capture each year's significant events, it was fun to hear what images they thought of based on what was most important to them.

I often hear the phrase from clients "it is all a blur, I wish I could remember it better." This may be in reference to raising children, a wedding day, graduation, high school years, or childhood. The Lakotas created a way to mark time and help remember significant events. The Lakota practice can help us today to reflect and celebrate how far we have come, what we have survived, and how we have grown.

Capturing your stories in any form is a way to honor your life experiences. You have done a lot of living. Celebrate that and acknowledge your resilience, hopefulness, and expansion along the way.

And if your inner critic is saying, 'you have no artistic ability' look at how simple these images are. This is an exercise of reflection, not artistic talent. Pull out a journal you purchased or was gifted to you (I know you have them!) and try making a simple sketch. Get curious and see what happens.

Capture your stories.

Sending you love,

Ginger