Bear's Den: " Loneliness Can Be Kind'a Corny "

Ah ta-kwah-ki – autumn. It sure is a pretty time of year. I used to love this season best of all. It meant fall hunting and fishing and just being outside. But, the older I get the less I like the cold, and that´s starting to go for its multicolored, precursor sidekick, too. Yep, as the days grow bleaker, my bones creak and moan and my muscles rebel right along with them. Sure, and even a brain as feeble as mine knows that the vivid colors and crisping air are but a harbinger of papoonwi (winter). Still, it is harvest time, and that´s a bright spot among the other dazzling blush. Yeah, and I know that I´m kind´a corny, too. Um-hmm… just as long as I´m not forgotten, though… I can live with it.

Yep, in addition to bountiful dazzling colors and chilling air, fall brings the harvest. For farmers and gardeners alike, it´s a time to reap what they´ve sewn. There is an immensely deep satisfaction in this that is more than just pride for those involved. I see it as a hereditary part of the human make-up – part of the Master of Life´s design. For the two-legged who has planted, tended and grown food as the Great Good Spirit has intended for us, the harvest is a completion of one of the circles of life. Yep, and we know it inherently. With the planting comes a responsibility, too, and as with all tasks… there is trust involved and we know it. Like the planting and tending, we know this innately as it is part of our make-up.

Ya know, there´s not much worse then being left all alone. All of the Creator´s creatures need companionship to some degree. Sure, even a p´sai-wi ne-noth-tu (a great warrior) needs another human voice to hear and respond to. And, while I´m not one of those who thinks that you have to talk to your begonias, beans or brussel sprouts in order to maintain their inner child, I do know that loneliness is a bad thing. Nope, I don´t think that a body has to stand out in the pumpkin patch or… hover over their potted petunia… and pok-vano (gossip) about the neighbors just so´s… they´ll feel whole and included. But to waste is wrong and this can be found in all of the Earth Mother´s religions. Yes´um, we´re supposed to be all about doing what the Creator wants, so doing things right is always mandatory for the standard model #302 two-legged. But as long as I was talking about loneliness, cold and aches… just for the heck of it… couple this bereft feeling with that of being stranded out in the blistery conee (snow) and m-quanta (ice) of a coming winter and man… the dreary solitude gets even more heart-wrenching. Yes´sir, well there´s and old Arikara story that ties doing what´s right and the harvest tightly together; it goes this´away.

An Arikara woman was once gathering corn from the field in the fall to store away for winter use. She passed from stalk to stalk, tearing off the ears and dropping them into her folded robe. When all was gathered she started to go, when she heard a faint voice, like a child's, weeping and calling.

"Oh, do not leave me! Do not go away without me."

The woman was astonished. "What child can that be?" she asked herself. "What babe can be lost in the cornfield?"

She set down her robe in which she had tied up her corn, and went back to search; but she found nothing. As she started away she heard the voice again.

"Oh, do not leave me. Do not go away without me."

She´d heard it surely and now searched with a fever. She looked for a long time. At last in one corner of the field, hidden tightly under the leaves of the stalks, she found one little ear of corn. This it was… that had been crying. She carefully picked the ear and added it to the rest.

And this is why… all Indian women have since gathered their corn crop very carefully, so that the succulent food should not even to the last small nubbin… be neglected or wasted, and thus displease The Great Mystery.

So there you go. The fall brings bright colors and chilling air and notifies of us of winter´s advent. But, it also brings the harvest and… a responsibility, too. And, I figure that I´m okay with that because it is bright spot among the other dazzling blush. Yeah, and I know that I´m kind´a corny, too. Um-hmm… just as long as I´m not forgotten, though… I can live with it.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

David Walks-As-Bear is an Inter-Tribal Elder and Kispoko Shawnee Indian. He works as a private game warden and detective captain and is a novelist and syndicated newspaper columnist living in Northwest Michigan. Contact him at The White Lake Beacon: 231-894-5356 or visit his website at: www.Walks-As-Bear.com