Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to all those who contributed their wisdom and creativity to this book: the many teenagers and Wisdomkeepers whose words fill up each page. Likewise, I am indebted to the spiritual teachers who have helped me along the way, and who have kept me on the path of the Spiritual Warrior.

Thank you Laurel Reinhardt, Shannon King, Tamara Truer, and Joan Oliver Goldsmith, for being containers of hope and inspiration; Colleen Brenzy and Davis Taylor for your sacred wisdom and guidance; Andrea Wunnicke and Eric Amlie for helping me through my Thundering Years with my humor and strength in tact; Mr. and Mrs. Kaiser for offering another home during those teen years; the Haygoods for offering me their country get-away; to my seventh grade English teacher whose name I have forgotten but whose kindness remains with me; to Shabazz (Alternative) High School for giving me another chance; and to my high school sweetheart, Bill Ishmael.

Thank you to Jon Graham for seeing the value in the book and getting it to a most talented editor, Jeanie Levitan; to Nancy Yeilding, Janet Jesso, Priscilla Baker, and Peri Champine for their creative touch to the book—each page holds within it their thunder.

And finally to Spirit who helped get this book into your hands.

Royalties from this book will be donated to International Campaign for Tibet, to help keep this indigenous spirit alive, and to Honor the Earth, to protect Native American communities and their sacred sites.