Ki Earth Blog - Day One

Ki Earth Blog - Day One Journey of Dakan across America

Standing on the grass next to my 4Runner I breathed in the brisk clean early morning air. The SUV was packed and ready . . . parked on one street among thousands and thousands of cars and houses. Two miles from the Space Needle and downtown Seattle, I was surrounded by a million people, and I could close my eyes and experience being in the middle of nowhere. All was calm and peacefully silent. My thoughts drifted to my last home in a Kapaa subdivision. So different. At this time of night dogs would be barking, roosters screaming for love, tires squealing somewhere. I can’t remember it being this quiet.

Turning the key I looked at the time: 3:33 am. Appropriate. Another 9. I’m 63 and on a journey of completion. My whole life has been turned upside down. I’m ready to find my home.

Driving out of Seattle I own the freeway. Randomly I pull a CD from the glove compartment. The music starts and I turn it up - not knowing who I will be listening to.

Van Morrison sings:

“I’m on the highway, in the byways all alone. I’m still searching, still searching for my home. Up in the morning, up in the morning out on the road, my head is aching and my hands are cold. And I’m looking for the silver lining, the silver lining in the clouds. And I’m searching for, searching for the Philosophers Stone. It’s a high road, a high road to travel on . . .”

I drove for three hours, napped in the back of my SUV for two, had breakfast at an American diner in Spokane, then drove through the high sliver of Idaho and into Montana.

I found a very quiet campsite, alongside a river and under the tall pines, under the Big Sky. I feel good here. I resonate with pine trees, mountains and rivers. I don’t know what to expect - it is only my first day on the road - and I truly feel that I am on the cusp of something spectacular.

I lived in Kauai for 20 years. I’ve met so many people who get there and feel like they have “come home.” I never felt that way about Kauai. It was a place where I lived and survived - a place where I healed and found my maturity. I feel that a home is where your family is, and although I had/have exceptionally wonderful friends, I was constantly trying to make up family - trying to fit somehow. Trying . . . to manifest my idea of what a family means to me. It never happened. In all my years on Kauai I didn’t experienced the natural meeting of a man and a woman, me as one of two lovers coming together to create the family core. For twenty years I experienced Monk Island. It finally occurred to me that I was spending my life away from home.

The one way I have vicariously created my lover, family and home is through my novels. Later I will talk about what the “Ki Earth” blog means and how it all relates.

Last winter I began writing an American Indian novel called “Two Crows.” For reasons I am unsure of, I began the story at a Crow Indian camp in Montana in 1876. I am on my way to Montreal and chose to take US 90 across the upper states. Tomorrow US 90 will take me across Montana to Billings and then south through the Crow Indian Reservation. I’ll stop and see who I can talk story with - and let you know what happens in my next travel blog.

By the way - as you read the following chapter - today a coyote ran across the highway in front of me . . . and then moments later a crow flew past.

Many blessings, Dakan

Here is the first chapter of my novel “Two Crows.” Copyright 2010 ISBN 978-1-4243-3291-5

Trust that your dream is even greater then you think. Just listen as the story unfolds. You’ll know what to do.

Crow Village f Montana 1876

1

f

Wolf Eyes scanned the heavens and smiled when he found his beloved Wolf Star. She is near, he thought as he turned his head to the blinking beauty of the Seven Sisters, and the rest of his celestial family, polka-dotting the high Montana sky. The countless stars were like a downy pillow comforting the full August moon, which allowed him to see clearly to the four horizons. Wolf Eyes was the village medicine man, their shaman; known to all as Grandfather. He sat to the west of a small medicine wheel, laid out with rocks on a hill about a half mile from the Crow village, and sang a low guttural chant to the great Wakan Tanka. Hiya . . . hiya . . . hiya . . .

Two barks spoke of her imminent arrival. Still looking up at the Wolf Star, he knew without a doubt the twinkles were meant for him, an assurance that all was well between he and his totem. He reached for some twigs and threw them into the small fire, keeping it alive, sprinkled in some sage and chaparral, then closed his eyes and said a prayer. Oh Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the silence, whose breath gives life to the world, help me to open my eyes so I will see past the great wall. I call forth Mother Earth and Father Sky to awaken me to the mystery I now face, and I ask my heart to open fully, so I will move forward with love and compassion. And I call forth my beloved sister wolf, who has been of great comfort to me in many revolutions of life. I ask you all to be with me now.

When he opened his eyes she was there, sitting on her haunches at the other side of the slow burning embers, to the east of Grandfather. Her fur was the color of the moon, with touches of night sky and sprinkles of star dust. She came from the east, as wolves do, and it was very auspicious that she sat there in the eastern place of wisdom, knowledge and clarity, exactly what Grandfather needed at this time.

Spirit Wolf, the name he had given her when she first appeared almost seventy years before, my heart is full of happiness each time I see you, Grandfather thought.

As is mine, she replied. I heard your call and I have come. How can I help you?

You walk between worlds, as I do. My journeys have been into the world of my animal brothers and sister, into the rocks and trees and plants that share their medicine. I go into the dream world of my people and help them find peace when they are disturbed or ill. Sometimes I find my ancestors and they give me messages from the other world, the world of those who have come and gone before me. My eyes have been open. I have seen clearly, but now I am blind.

You would not see me if you were blind, Spirit Wolf thought back, puzzled. What is it that you are blind to?

The future.

Nobody knows the future. That is not a blindness. It is an unknown. Except to the crow. Maybe it is best that you ask her. I am here to encourage you to face your fears and follow the call of your inner knowing. She sees the great mystery.

Grandfather paused. He closed his eyes as he had done before the wolf appeared, and imaged his sister crow joining the medicine wheel. In the distance he heard her call. Caw-caaaw, he shouted in his mind to the north. Within minutes a crow appeared and landed too his left, assuming the northern position of the owl - the place of wisdom and magic.

My heart sings to you, my sister, Grandfather said with a revenant bow to the crow. Thank you for coming. The crow smiled and nodded. It is you who can see the past, the present and the future at the same time. This is what I would like to know . . .

Grandfather, the wolf and the crow where suddenly distracted by a loud howl and then a cloud of dust. Brother coyote showed up out of nowhere. I heard your invitation so I came as quickly as I could, he said, taking a deep breath, although I know I wasn’t invited, and I never am, since I don’t need an invitation, but I know you want me to be here, after-all, this medicine wheel wouldn’t be complete with three, would it? Coyote assumed his position in the south.

Well, since we are all here, Grandfather said with a chuckle, I am asking for wisdom and guidance from the four directions, and from the other three, who I have already invited into this circle. This is why were are here . . . He looked each of the animal spirits in their eyes. My grandson, Two Crows, sees the into future. He does not understand his visions and will come to me this night seeking my wise counsel. I wish to see his dreams and understand them, but I cannot. I am blind to what he sees.

They are his visions and not yours, Spirit Wolf was the first to speak. You cannot see what you have not been invited to see. Why do you wish to rob another’s dream.

I do not wish to rob them. He is of my blood and I have not seen him for many revolutions of the sun. He has returned to our village and tonight is our first meeting since he was a child. I feel new life pumping in my heart. I want to travel to the future with him - to share the visions of my Grandson.

The Great Spirit is presenting you with a mystery, a mystery that even I do not yet understand. May I offer a suggestion? Crow joined in.

Please. This is why I have called you to my medicine wheel.

Ask to be invited into his dreams. I will be there to guide you to the place beyond time and space. But only until you no longer need me.

He doesn’t need you, coyote interrupted. All dreams are our own dreams, nobody else’s. You can play in my dream and I in yours, but never forget, it’s all the dream of the dreamer.

What? Grandfather asked, not expecting the coyote to say such a thing.

Trust that your dream is even greater then you think. Just listen as the story unfolds. You’ll know what to do.

With a nod of agreement the coyote and the wolf disappeared, and the crow flew away. Grandfather stood and raised his arms, turned in the four directions, looked above and below and sent thanks to every living thing, and then headed down the hill to his tipi.