(You can read part one of this post here.)
Like the Northern Lights
She spoke with an obvious authority here. Wherever here is.
The kindness and warmth of this comforting elder nearly brought me to tears. I felt like I was being hugged – even at this distance from her.
I immediately recalled stories of my own grandmother whom I’d never met. Biishte-kwe they called my paternal grandmother. I imagined being raised by Biishte-kwe with the same kindness I felt from this Elder standing here in front of us.
The light seemed to dim, then brighten a bit. Kind of. I guess. But, maybe my eyes were still adjusting to the light coming back.
As my focus got clearer, it seemed to me that this elder in the front of all of us was looking very much like a bear! But… she also looked like an elder woman. I couldn’t tell exactly.
It was strange. There was this flickering back and forth between bear and woman. Like the shimmering of light that happens when I watch the Northern Lights. A light that’s there, but it’s not there. Then it’s somewhere else. And then it’s black, and then it’s bright. Then it’s dim. Then it’s moving up and down. And then sliding sideways. That’s the kind of back and forth sliding light movement that was happening in and around this elder.
We continued giving her our fullest attention. All of us.
And not in anyone around me did I sense any feelings resembling fear, or worry, or concern. Which was comforting. But, it was also odd. We were, after all, in the presence of a glimmering light bear-woman woman-bear who, it seemed, had the ability to make it be dark, or be light, at will.
A Village of Elders
A series of elders spoke after her. All of them had that flickering light movement thing happening.
At times, all looked like elders. But at other times, each of them had another unique appearance. One elder woman also appeared as a lynx. Another elder would appear as a turtle at times. Another seemed to be a toad sometimes. All with that shimmering light thing happening.
It was all so unbelievable. I think there were other beings too. But remembering everything was really difficult for me given all that was happening. And, of course, I still had no idea where we were. And as to why we were being shown all this by these elders… I was clueless.
Growing Up
Then the lights dimmed. Darkness again.
The children were back! But they were older now. There were less of them. And they each seemed to have gone their separate way. But they were back again for us to see!
One by one, the elders in the front spoke to us about these children who were now young adults. And as the evening (the night?) progressed, these young adults became adults. Then they became older adults.
And each time the children aged a bit, the lights would brighten, an elder would motion for another elder to come, that next elder would come to the front and begin speaking, and there would be darkness again. Then we would all, once again, hear a kind of ongoing presentation about these growing kids, these growing people, as we watched this sort of video of their lives.
Where do I fit in?
While the sacredness of all of this was very clear to me, I didn’t see exactly what any of this had to do with my own life. I wasn’t sensing what my role in all this might be. And, I wanted to know my role. I wanted to matter. I wanted to help with whatever it seemed we were brought here to help with. After all, why spend all this energy and effort on teaching us if we weren’t going to be able to do anything with this knowledge to assist in some way with whatever was going on here?
And then, like someone had read my mind at this very moment that I thought these thoughts, it happened! He looked at me! Right into my eyes… and smiled. I was shocked! Goosebumps all over my body. How could this possibly be??
To be continued…
