When I was a child…maybe ten, someone shared something profound.
They told me that words are powerful.
Also, that mindful use of stories can be an art to express.
However, there was a caution that when words leave our lips, they are like leaves released into the wind. We cannot contain them. Like trying to unring a bell, we cannot control where the energy of our voice travels.
This was a caution against gossip.
The person said, “Trying to contain the rippling of our words is like trying to gather leaves that the wind has taken, scattered, and moved far and wide.
In current times (with the rise of celebrity, “reality programming”, social media, and spectacle), the gravity towards participating in scattering leaves is common – even understandable.
However, Anishinaabemowin can convey not only the reach of words – but the mindfulness that comes along with it which comes with life, time, and experience.
Dibaajimowin is the telling of a story.
Storytelling.
This type of story does not consist of the sacred (although life is indeed sacred), metaphysical, or moral sort that is often told during the winter months.
Rather, it is a narrative describing an occurrence attached to experience or experiences.
The heart of the term is rich and full of meaning but leaning on only linguistics doesn’t quite do it justice.
“Dib” pertains to pointing in a certain direction but also can invoke the essence of an acknowledgement of a particular window of time.
This small sound can be found in the Anishinaabemowin word for the moon, as life energy from the Grandfather Sun reaches the Grandmother Moon at a particular angle (and she speaks on behalf of him for a particular window of time) in a certain way, reminding us of the interwoven windows of time.
“Aa” (from Waas) pertains to a light – pertaining to the light within, the essence of spiritual energy. This is discoverable in many terms related to visible light such as Waawaate (“It is the northern lights”), Waasese (“It is a flash of lightning”), among many others.
“Ji” pertains to the soul, as discoverable in Ojichaag. This conveys the relationship to spiritual energy that exists within the body, as opposed to “Jii” (found in ojiibay) which approximates the soul outside of the body.
“Mo” refers to the energy held within that by means of expression, projects out by means of speech. Anishinaabemowin is an example of this. In a beautiful way, there is also a linguistic connector often connecting to “win” (which we will explore in a moment).
“Dibaajimo” (“He/she is telling a narrative story”) deeply pertains to passing the essence of one’s light on, by means of speech and expression of experience, to which the light is an essence and energy of the soul and life.
One of my long-time (and since passed-on) mentors shared that each experience we go through (good or bad), it is stored as small lights in our bones and by means of a life lived, they grow and add up.
Do you see the connection between the spirit, the light of the spirit, the vessel that contains the spirit that activates it, and the light of experience?
As an experience is shared, it picks up the essence of each person’s spiritual life energy as it passed-on to the next and the next and the next, in a certain direction for as long as it is told.
How is this accomplished?
Win
In surface linguistics, this is called a nominalizer. It takes an action and makes it a noun, a thing, a concept.
In the staggeringly beautiful esoteric and deeper meaning:
Wi: pertains to life energy.
In: within the bodily vessel.
So ultimately, what does Dibaajimowin convey?
Making the choice to use one’s life energy within one’s vessel (which is finite each day) to share an experience by means of the energy of speech which carries the essence of the light within, projected in a particular trajectory as long as it is told – in turn, picking up the soul’s essence of each person that passes it along.
Dibaajimowin
Dih-BAAH-jih-MO-WIN
Lastly, there is a very conscious and mindful element that can be added to phrases, statements, or stories of experience we share – but which we did not experience, see, or observe ourselves.
Iiinzan.
(ee-ZUNN)
“It has been said”, “so he/she said”, “so they say”.
This is an element that prevents assumptions or experiences that we did not see ourselves, but we have been told.
Pure art.
