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| Growing Up by � kanee With fingers gnarled with time and life, the old woman buried the last of the seeds into the ground and gently blanketed them with mother earth. She sat back on her haunches, satisfied with her work, and offered her thanks to the Creator for many things......for the sunshine that brought warmth to her tiny, thin frame that was always cold now, for the earth that covered the seeds that brought promise of continuance to the circle, and even for the gnarled fingers that she had earned. Raising her arms into the air and humming softly, she quietly and humbly offered her heart-felt praises and gratitude to Creator. Creator had provided her with the means to survive, and with His help, survive she would. With great difficulty she rose from the ground to stand tall....not as tall as she used to stand, but tall none-the-less. With tiny, painful steps, she made her way down the path that would eventually lead her home. Near the edge of the river, she stopped to watch the children playing there and in her minds eye, her feet became their feet and she was running and playing nimbly in the tall grass as she had done many, many years before. She smiled inwardly as she noted the way the children pretended to be warriors, hunters and medicine women, how they were so eager to reach their adult destinies She knew from her experience that when that day came, they would not only grieve for their youth, but would try and retain it by bearing off- spring in an effort to keep the circle going. Such was life. She had finally reached the door to her home and when she entered, the exhaustion of her labor and journey washed over her and she gently lowered herself onto a pile of furs. She closed her eyes, thankful for a respite and prayed for the strength to sew one more row of seeds, to hear the laughter of children one more day. Her exhaustion soon took her into deep sleep, to that place where her heart became alive and her dreams became her reality. She found herself in a place that was somehow vaguely familiar and she watched an eagle circle overhead. Each loop brought him nearer and nearer to her. He finally landed on a low branch in a tree that she hadn't noticed before and he began to speak to her, not with words, but with knowing. She listened with an anxious heart as he explained to her that she had outgrown her life here, and it was time to move on. At first she was sad, because she did not want to leave the seeds she had sown unattended, no more than she wanted to leave the laughter of the children which would no doubt turn to tears upon her departure. But when the eagle explained to her that her job was done, that she had sown her seeds well, and that it was now in Creator's hands, she was comforted and knew that the Eagle was right, that she HAD outgrown her life here, and that it WAS now time to move on. She looked into the Eagle's eyes and before she realized it, found herself soaring freely, free from pain, free from a reality that was only a mirage, free from the exhaustion of survival. And when Creator reached down to touch her cheek, she knew the peace she had known at the very beginning of the circle, and knew that she had not departed, she had only come home. March 18, 2001 |
