There was a time when little thought was given to wonders or to the why of the world.
I recall what had happened to me in my youth. I was standing on a bluff, not far from this place and was wondering why I had come to this place I now call home. I didn't find the answer, but I have remained because of the question.
"It is because it is," said my Father. "What else would the eagle do but soar across the sky? What more would you have the beaver do, but to build his lodge?" He sat me down on the edge of the bluff and continued, "Man is given to the asking of many questions.But the one question that man is afraid to hear is the question of self."
"I do not understand Father," I said with the innocence of youth.
My Father smiled at me and looked to the white, billowy clouds in the sky. "Who am I, I asked myself once", he explained. "Do you know what happened?" "What?" I said eagerly to hear his response. "Nothing. Nobody answered me."
He closed his eyes as if remembering. "The wind whispered my question to the deer grazing close by. She, who is swift to foot within a patient and free spirit."
He opened his eyes and stared intently into my eyes. "The Deer stopped its grazing to hear my words. She stood perfectly still, looked suspiciously around,then spoke to me. "Man is a weed grown loose with strife. Man asks too many questions and seeks the answer to himself."
The Deer seeks to fill the hunger in its belly and to bare her young within the forest that she is apart of. Deer see the glowing in the great blue rise and drop and the Deer know it will rise and drop.
Each time Deer see it anew. "What will Man do differently when he finds out why the glowing in the great blue rises and drops?" The Deer asks herself.
The Deer turned and sprinted a short distance, stopping just before it was swallowed by the forest and said, "Seek not for who you are, Man... But to what you are apart of; For you are as the Deer and the Eagle lest you forget and are unable to remember who Man is. Then the Deer and the Eagle will surely be lost to Man."
"What did you do then Father?" I begged.
"Why, I did what Man would do."
"What?"
"I killed the Deer and fed my brothers and sisters for a week."
To this day I fondly remember that lesson my Father imparted on me. And to this day I continue to not lose myself within myself, I act upon who it is that my heart and mind and spirit tells me. And as death is to life, a circle shared in harmony, ... I too share in humility the act of living and ultimately the last breath of death.
-RedSpider- -From the
RedEarth Society-
Last Update: 10-1-2000