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| Samantha's Story by � arhllm A little bit of background first, I was raised in the Episcopal church by my adoptive parents, and married a boy that I grew up with within the church. so stayed there through the first part of the marriage raisung our two daughters within it's walls. Always with the understanding that they had the right to choose their own paths as adults. I having chosen to, "stand by my man, and his faith". The faithand life was rocked when in 1993 on Easter Sun., I'd been seperated since te past oct, He the ex now, came singing in the procession as he walked by me he whispered, B@#%^. Katie who was just 12, heard her father, got up and walked out. So, I moved us to the Unitarian Universalist Church, that had a wonderful re program that talked about all religions. Anyhow, life threw a curve and i had to face my beliefs and realized that for my lifetime I had been going with the flow, it's safe!, changed course and found a new/old direction. On to The story non fiction. We have had some weird weather in NY over the past month.For the past 6 months I have struggled to find my center, decided it was time to put my life in order and made what seemed like a simple change. Instead of giving thanks before sleep and again in the morning, inside, I opted to go outside under that weird tree in my backyard. Facing the four directions praying with either cornmeal or tobacco I gave thanks, asked for blessings for friends famiy the world, Mother Earth etc.. sually around ten PM. I had been doing this for 5 months, when Samantha our yellow Lab, who at 3 is still all puppy brained, started to wait for me at the back door at 10 pm on the dot to go outside. Her contribution to my praying had been up to this point, running around me to catch the corn meal as the wind picked it up and blew it out of my fingers. A well coreograghed dance in the middle of the suburbs. Three to four weeks ago, it was a Monday night, we had had 68 degree weather the past friday, and now as I watched the 10 o'clock news it was repoted to be a negative 27 degrees with the wind chill. There was no way I was going to go outside to pray, doubts had beencreeping in as to whether or not anyone was listening to my loan voice. Samntha sat at that door staring at me for 10 minutes then she atarted to cry, not whine I should explain, she sounds like a heartbroken woman sobbing her life away when she cries. I gave in, Put on my boots, Hat, coat and mittens over my jams. went outside with my cornmeal, faced North andthanked Grandfather for the weather, totally engulfed in sarcasm. It wasso cold that Sammy just leaned up against my leg for warmth, no dance this night! I turned to the East and gave thanks for a day with only moderate pain, continued all the way around and then i did something new, I looked within my self and gave a blessing to Grandfather, Creator, God, all the while saying to myself this isn't working why bother. Sammy froze, the wind stopped, and then it started swirling around us in a clockwise direction, it was soooo warm, sammy started doing her circle dance adding leaps and yips and doggy bliss as the tears flowwed down my cheecks, I was humbled, blessed and felt loved, at that point the whirlwind that we were in the center of dissipated, the street lights came back up and the stars, the stars that had been brilliant receeded. We still go out everynight and everynight Samantha dances and I dream of a better place in my life because I have seen what power there is in this world of ours. In PEACE Andy copywrite 2002 |