A Female Rain

It was a different world. I had left my own behind and my spirit stood naked before me. I saw my own identity and set it aside to take in all that was aroung me. Even the air that filled my lungs took in words that meant different things than I knew before. It was exciting and it was experience.

It was the world of the Navajo of Northern Arizona. It was their land, their culture and their generousity that gave me a new perspective. My friend and I were blessed to have the opportunity to spend time with a man and his family there that were like family of our own.

I helped with the tasks of shearing sheep and retrieving water from a distant well. Many a night it was my flashlight that guided me down the path to the little, rickity outhouse that stood on the hill nearby. I stood amongst the people who rode the bulls in local rodeos and let my camera preserve the memories. I was welcomed and I was happy!

I sat amongst the great tribal council in Window Rock and listened to the words of the native tongue and admired the ways of their lives. And I was honored to be invited into the tribal council chambers to visit with the President, Joe Shirley!

I tasted the breakfast of blue corn mush and the evening meal of fry bread and mutton. I spoke with the family and began to learn their words and ways.

I met a people who were sat a part from the world and yet were a part of its make up. I was honored in a world that knew no haste and I felt that life had meaning here. It was a place that did not set one man as better than another. It knew honor and it nurtured it! It was a land the time remembered. It was a time that I could never forget!

Our host for that weeks visit was and is more than a brother. He is a confidant who's life has tasted both the bitter and the sweet of the world and who's body defies its infirmities. He is blind and yet he calls it an "inconvenience." He hauls water, climbs wind mills that taunt the eagles! He cooks on open flame and treads the paths that man questions. He is a brother who takes one step backward and many forward denying in the infirmities that set us back in mere thought.

It was a different world! I stood in the wind that whiped through the dusty paths. The clouds gathered and left me in the female rain that gently preceeded the male's storm thought to come. I stood in peace. I stood in the Navajo way!