BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Native American The Campfire Circle

A Native American prayer for a lost loved one:
from The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1943:


I give you this
One thought to keep.
I am with you still.
I do not sleep...
I am the soft stars
That shine at night...
Do not think of me as gone
I am with you still,
In each new dawn...

In one of the stars
I shall be living
In one of them
I shall be laughing
And so it will be
As if all the stars
Where laughing
When you look
At the sky at night

I welcome all to the Campfire. Here is where each has a turn to take the talking stick and share with others.

It has been a long time since I visited the campfire. May I take the talking stick?

It's been a beautiful summer here, in Ohio. Very few oppressively humid days. A lot of rain, for which I am very grateful and many, many warm, breezy days.

The eagles visited often this summer. Mostly when Cecil is here - not so much when he's not. However, for about 2 weeks a pair of parent eagles spent everyday teaching their young ones to hunt. I could hear eagles calling everyday for many days. I can't describe the thrill. Often times I could hear them but not see them, then one day I saw all 5 of them circling; two adults and three juveniles. It was a very special gift. It's unusual for a pair to have 2 eggs and both chicks survive, but to have THREE chicks survive is nearly impossible. We've been blessed.

Over the months I've developed very special and true friendships with two ladies who are involved with this forum. Another blessing.

My David and I were invited to go to a Sundance at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. That was a wonderful experience. The sky there is so different than the sky here, in Ohio. We camped for several days and each night the Thunders came with lightening and big winds. (I need to write a letter to the Eureka! tent company and tell them what a good tent they make. It withstood the winds and we stayed dry....mostly.) The days were sunny and clean. I understand why the Lakota People love their prairies. I can't describe what it is like to sit in the middle of a great big field of sage. The fragrance is intoxicating.

We set up camp under an ancient cottonwood tree. Someone had leaned several tipi lodge poles up against a low lying branch and the children used them as a slide. I'll never know how they managed to avoid splinters in their heinies.

Many nights we heard the coyotes.....sounded like they were pretty close. We don't hear them in Ohio anymore. In Ohio it is open season all year round for coyotes with no limit. It makes me sick. We also heard herds of cattle and horses running through the camp at night and could see them during the day. It was surreal watching the horses running through the prairie. I felt like I'd been sent back into the century that I belong.

Now, we're home and back to work. The birds still wake me at 6:30; I still go to the garage and have my coffee while I watch the sun come up and burn off the fog. But it's not the same. My heart is still in South Dakota. I left it there on purpose. Now, I have to go back next year......

Conni, thank you for your beautiful description. Through your words, we all can share a bit of the experience.

My Mother visited Pine Ridge for the Rodeo and Pow-Wow a few years back. Hopefully I'll be able to visit some day myself.

Connidee, your words bring the profound beauty of the Sundance and the life in Nature to us all. Thank you so much for sharing.

It has been a long time since I, too, visted the campfire.

I so enjoyed reading about your experience with the Eagles, Conni. Just yesterday my dear friend, who lives just a couple blocks from me, sent me a picture of an Eagle that was picking up a squirrel from the road right in front of her home.
I felt so bad for the little squirrel, who must have been hit by a vehicle, but loved seeing the Majestic Eagle! He brought to mind a little poem:

SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE

MAY YOUR SPIRIT SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE
RIDING THE MORNING BREEZE
MAY YOUR JOY RUN STRONG AND WIDE AND DEEP
AS THE WAVES OF THE SACRED SEAS
MAY YOUR SOUL EMBRACE BOTH EARTH AND SKY
AND GUIDE YOU TRULY AS THE YEARS GO BY
MAY YOUR HEART BE STRONG THROUGH ALL LIFE'S TESTS
AND ALWAYS AND FOREVER MAY YOU BE BLESSED

Lovely, isn't it?

I am so pleased to see my old friends still here keeping the campfire going! Blessings to you, Phyllis.

Until another time:

Wakan Tanan Kici Un.
Wowastelaka,
Kimi Kaya

Kimi Kaya, it is always so good to hear from you. I feel you have a sweet and gentle spirit. You go away for such long times! I hope things have been good for you in the time you've been away.

The poem is beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with all of us.
Conni

Kimi Kaya, Cante Etanhan Owoglake (speaking from the heart)is what you do so well. Thank you for the beautiful poem. It lifts my spirits.

Conni, you also lift my spirits with your lovely words and your Eagles - thank you so much for sharing that with us.

Both of you are so in touch with Nature and seem to be walking in Harmony and Balance. Walk in Peace and Beauty.

Cante etanhan Owoglake, I send Wowastelaka (love) and blessings to you both.

Wakan Tanan Kici Un.

Winter time will be upon us before we know it. Enjoy your days of Summer and the Autumn warmth. Gather together your stories and share them with us this winter as we draw closer to the fire within us all.

Wopila Tanka for your kind words, Conni. It is my 'beading' that keeps me away for long periods. If it is not in actual design and beading, then it is spending much time collecting patterns and such on the computer. I find I love every facet of it!

But, I do like to stop by the campfire to see how my fiends are, and what they are up to. If they are well and happy, then so am I.

And to you, Phyllis: Cante Waste Nape Ciyu Zapo, I greet you from my heart. Just a little different than what you have written. It is true, I am very much 'into' nature and all that Mother Earth offers us.

Along those same lines, something I read today that spoke to me.

Black Elk and his Thoughts About 'Trees'.

Can there be anything more beautiful than the seasons of a tree? A tree stands in beauty from year to year and keeps its grace and dignity. Its secrets are at its center and it tells nothing of people and their passing events. We learn when we watch a tree. It constantly prunes itself, continually sheds any excess. When it is growing in a difficult place it sends down deep roots to grapple for a firm footing. Every leaf is unique and beautiful - but they also serve to remove toxic poisons from the atmosphere, and send out a clean fragrance to shade us from heat. To sit beneath a tree, or to lie on the earth beneath an oak is the essence of pleasure. But to see the topmost leaves that no human hand has ever touched is to see a common miracle - a miracle with a message that says to get a firm footing in everything that is good and stand tall with our eye on the sky.

~ It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. ~

I love trees and very much liked what Black Elk wrote.

I shall now pass the talking stick on and say to all:

Wakan Tanan Kici Un.
Wowastelaka,
Kimi Kaya