Excerpt 1:
“For any long journey
we must make plans and have guides,” the bird explained. “You may choose
your guides to take you into their world and tell you how all things came to
be connected. They will tell you how the balance was lost and help you reach
into the future once you have come to understand the past.”
Kumi sat in silence. He looked around the circle,
unsure of his choice yet
knowing its importance. Then he saw them, side by side sitting apart from
the others, two creatures of the night forever
connected in the darkness to
one another. From different worlds but watching together, were the wolf and
the owl.
He remembered his grandfather’s words, not so very long ago. “At night there
are voices, voices that call to one another. Though many animals come awake
when the rest of us sleep there are only two who will reach out, calling out
to warn and guide the others. Listen in the darkness, Kumi, and you will
hear the cry of the wolf and the owl calling out her answer. The others walk
the night in silence; you will never know they are there. Wolf and Owl still
call out, letting all who can hear them know that they have command of the
darkest night.”
Excerpt 2:
“I have traveled a
long way this night,” he told the gathering. “I have come to find the
answers to many questions. Is there one among you willing to share your
wisdom with a stranger?”
He watched as one by one, the quiet eyes looked around in the firelight.
Then, as if by some unspoken words, each one of the shadowed faces looked to
a figure dozing in the background. The small boy who had lead Kumi to the
gathering walked quietly to the figure and spoke. “Auntie, a stranger has
come. Wolf and Owl have brought him from far away to learn and to hear what
you alone can share.”
The figure sat up, refreshed from her short slumber to gaze into the
darkness of the lodge. “Come closer; I must look into your eyes in order to
see into your heart.”
Kumi approached and then stopped, suddenly frightened. The woman gazed at
him with eyes as blue and as pale as the ice that drifted across the
northern seas. “Who are you?” he asked. “Where have you come from?”
She stood up slowly, unfolding her long legs until she stood taller than
anyone in the lodge. Her hair was the color of the sun and she smiled with
pleasure at the guest who had arrived so unexpectedly.
“Your People have walked the earth for many generations, Kumi. You have a
family and a village where you have been protected and loved. But the world
is a large and wonderful place and there are others who walk upon it. There
are many like you and many far different. You must learn, as all those who
share the earth must, to walk in balance with all living things.
When you see me, you see someone unlike anyone you have ever known. My
appearance seems very strange to you and that can be a frightening thing.
But as you have traveled to this place with Wolf and Owl you have seen that
all things can live in harmony. The world grows when we accept and learn
from those we do not know or understand. I have come to be with the People
so that we may share the knowledge each of us has gained.”
“Help me to understand,” Kumi asked. “Just when I think I know all I need to
know, there is more to learn. Will it always be this way? Will I ever have
all the answers I seek?”
The pale eyes twinkled as she replied, “Kumi, you will never have all the
answers because with each answer there will be more questions. That is how
we learn and grow.
Answers are not all there is to knowledge. Questions are the beginning of
wisdom and wisdom brings more questions.”
