Joy Harjo
speaker
82 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Joy Harjo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And then there were qualities given to this God, or that they were always angry with you, or that you would always be guilty in their presence. So that was the second version, which didn't really sit right with me because, you know, in our Muscogee tradition, and I think in, you know, we were created by love. I remember...
My husband and I sometimes will lay there and just talk for hours, even now. And we're laying there talking, and I said, you know, I think about why were we created with, you think about the system, all of the systems in our body and the magnificence of it and how everything works together and then all of it, the insects, the birds, and all of this is going on.
And I think I can be overwhelmed and think, why? I mean, we all ask those questions. I mean, why? Why these systems? Why this striving? Why do we go through all the challenges? Why evil? I mean, why all of this? And the way that I find a peace in it is kindness, is knowing that there's kindness.
Then it can all make sense that, okay, you know, all of this can go on, but the path of kindness will bring peace. you know, it brings a different kind of nourishment. Is that the third version of God, then?
Probably, yes. Yeah, I think that's more the present, where there's an... It's, again, an immense creator, an immense creativity, but it's imbued with what we call anagechka, with a love that is so potent and powerful. It's powerful. It's not just, you know, it's not weak. It's very powerful. And it connects everybody.
And when I say everybody, I also mean the winds, the plants, the animals, each of us. So that's where I am now. Yeah. That could change. Yeah.
What are you feeling? Between two and three. I'll go with three.
Yeah, it's... You know, it's funny. The older I get, then I talk a little bit more about things I usually wouldn't talk about. I think that's true for me, too. In 2011, I helped my mother pass. My mother's around all the time. But it was not long after that, and my cousin died. And they said she died in a chair. She was just sitting there. And, you know, she had different health problems.
My age, though, and this was about... 10, 11, 12 years ago. And so I went to her funeral, my sister and I went to her funeral. And I was amazed that she looked, she just looked, she looked almost like she was going to stand up and walk out of there. Well, a few years ago, I'm just laying there right before I go to sleep. And there she was. And we just talked.
We just talked for a moment and said, hey, it wasn't freaky. I mean, it was, I saw her like in my, it was like she was there. And we just said, hey, how are you doing? I said, yeah, you know, at your funeral, you didn't even look like you were dead. We just talked for a moment, and then she was gone. She was just visiting. And then there's some people that you would really, like my father.
My father doesn't come to me that much. One time I was sitting, I was going through something, and he was living in New Mexico, and I'm sitting there real quiet. That's when you can hear them. I was sitting there real quiet, and my father came and said, I'm so proud of you. And the other day, it was on his birthday, it was February 28th, and I was really wanting to hear from him.
I didn't hear anything.
But that's, you know, I figure, I get a sense that he's not around. My mother is around, though. I mean, people are different. Yeah. But they're always, you know, we do talk about our ancestors, at least in our culture. And I think, you know, obviously by the time you're a great, I'm a great grandparent now, is you see things and you know things go on. You watch them reappear.
You know, you watch things reappear in the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren. And you know it goes on that there's a continuum and you start to see, you get insights into the whole thing. And so they're around, you know, some of them, some closer, some not. But I feel like I stay in touch with that. Some people don't. Some people, it's not in their realm.
You talk about belief systems. It's not in their realm of belief, even though somebody might be standing right by them wanting to talk to them. Or they find ways to do it, you know, and they find ways to do it. But, yeah, I think it's just part of living.
Now I'm going to cry. holding my daughter after she was born.
Yeah, then I think of my son too, you know. But I say my daughter because I lost her recently.
Oh, I'm so sorry. So often what I do, often what I do, I go back to when she was a baby. But I was so happy. And I know that she would rather me think of happiness. Yeah. She would rather have me think of happiness. Yeah. She's made that clear.
And I was so happy, you know. I mean, it's funny.
It made no sense that I had a child at that time, but her spirit came to me, and I, you know, and I was so, even though I was going through stuff, I don't need to go into that right now, but when she was born in the midst of all of this, you know, wounded knee was going on and, you know, a lot of challenges, but it was just, I said yes, and I wanted her, and I welcomed her, and I was...
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