So – what if you are too busy to spend 15 minutes a day making Medicine Wheels?

The beauty of the Medicine Wheel is this:  it is around you at all times.

Pay attention to the elements of the Medicine Wheel as it affects your life.

Eat a sandwich – Earth.

Take a Breath – Air

Drink – Water

Light a candle – Fire

Here are a number of situations and their corresponding elements:

Ouch!  Pricked my finger!  – Water and Earth (blood and flesh)

Sit on a chair – Earth.

Answer a phone call – Fire and Earth.

Maybe you will relate to different elements for these – that matters less than the fact of paying attention to the elements which are around you all the time.

Flight of birds – Air

Crawling Ants – Earth

Goldfish in a tank – Water

We are surrounded by the 4 Elements at all times.  Pay attention, and express appreciation for the beauty of the elements.  The gifts you will receive from this practice will be myriad.

Take a walk (a whole Medicine Wheel) – my bones and muscles are Earth, my breath is Air, my nervous system is Fire, and my heart pumps blood which is Water.

These are also true of your car – which is metal (Earth), uses gasoline and fluids (Water), requires a spark to start it (Fire), and an engine which must breathe (Air).

A Cup of tea:   You can build a  medicine sphere by making tea.  Using electricity or fire to heat the water (fire), watching the bubbles in the boiling water (air), pouring the tea (water), adding the oil (earth) – maybe waving a feather over the cup.  Lift the cup above you, put your finger in the cup to take a drop to throw to the earth below you (if you were outside you might pour a little on the earth).  Then, take a sip = inside.

Get the mail – paper = earth.

Work on computer = fire (electricity) and earth (egads, plastics are made of petroleum, which come from the earth, but maybe you relate to plastic as “liquid earth” or Water)

Look at your body, examine the everyday objects that you touch.  Your keys, your pillow, your books, your pet, your house, your stove, your furniture – all these objects are composed of the elements.

Express gratitude for what they bring you, and appreciation for how they fit in the Medicine Wheel, and you will grow in your gifts.