Page 59 of The Spirit of the Wolf

It was early morning. The sun was up in the eastern sky, but barely, its pinks and reds diffused across the barren landscape, welcoming in the new day with color. Both Marietta and Grey Coyote were seated in the gully, on the ground. There was no fire between them, but a breakfast of dried meat had appeased their hunger.

Her first lesson had begun, and she was instructed to learn it well, for she and Grey Coyote would begin their travels on this very evening.

“Mother Earth will provide everything for you,” Grey Coyote was saying. “All of your needs, be they food, medicines or weapons. But you must open your heart and your mind. You must become one with all existence.”

“Become one with existence?”

He nodded. “There is a oneness with nature. A feeling of belonging, of being part of it. It is true power. We are, all of us, connected. Every living creature is part and parcel of every other living creature. When you can feel this aliveness, this oneness with all life, you have then truly become a scout.”

“But I don’t understand.”

“Close your eyes and tell me, what do you see a mile away from here?”

She chortled. “I can’t see a mile away from here.”

“Yes, you can,” he encouraged. “Keep your eyes closed and feel the life around you.”

She tried to do as he said.

“Can you sense the boulder?”

Heaven forbid, she did perceive something. She asked, albeit a little shyly, “Is it to my left?”

“It is. I am proud of you. You can do this.”

“But the boulder is quite close to me.”

“It does not matter,” he responded. “How far away something is is not important. It is not the distance that matters, it is one’s feeling of belonging to all life. Now, tell me, what do you discern in the far distance from here?”

She tried to look. She tried very hard, but at last she shook her head. “Nothing. I can’t do this.”

“You can. But it is perhaps too soon. You must practice. You must sit here. You must close your eyes and feel the life around you, for there is much activity here. You must permit yourself to become part of it, to be it. We are all of us connected. You need only to sense the connection, and the rest is easy, for all your needs are provided by our Mother, the earth.”

“But—”

“This is why it is important to take care of the earth.” He expanded on the thought. “All life needs her, as she needs us. We are all joined by the life that flows through every living creature. This is why you must remember that to destroy something beautiful in the earth is to destroy something beautiful in yourself.”

She sat for a moment in thought. “I understand. You reap what you sow.”

He nodded. “The life force which one uses to destroy another is one’s own life force. It comes from none other than oneself. This energy of life exists as surely as the air you breathe, and it will come back to you, for you are the one who emanated it. And so it is that what one receives is good, or is bad, according to what one puts out into the world.”

She gazed up at him. Her throat constricted, as she recognized the truth of what he was saying. In some way, somehow, what Grey Coyote was saying…touched her.

“How have you managed to become aware of all this?”

“My grandfathers. And they learned from their grandfathers before them. But come, there is more you should know about scouting”—holding out his hand, he pulled her to her feet—“The first duty one must keep in mind when he is scouting is this: one must avoid all man-made and animal trails. In truth, a scout avoids all trails. And a scout never uses the same path twice.”

Marietta tried earnestly to understand. After all, she had promised him to learn all she could as quickly as possible. However, she couldn’t help but have a few questions. “But if you avoid all trails,” she asked, “how do you know where you’re going?”

“There are landmarks one can use to tell one’s way. The sun is used during the day, the seven brothers at night, for they will point you to the Star that Stands Still, the North Star.”

“Seven brothers?”

“The white man calls these stars the Big Dipper. But the Indians call the same stars the seven brothers.”

“Really? Why seven brothers?”

“It is from an old Cheyenne legend. In the legend, seven brothers escaped into the sky to avoid death. It is an excellent legend, and perhaps it is because of this that many of the surrounding tribes have come to adopt the name for this group of stars.”