Assignment 3.

Tree World (March 10, 2013, 10:54 am, Anchorage, Alaska)
A native American Elder was asked,
“What shall we do if we get lost?”

Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.

~An old Native American Elder story rendered into modern English by David Wagoner

The Power of the Circle

Puddle, Easter Sun (March 30, 2013, Anchorage, Alaska)

“Everything the Power of the World does is done in circle.
The sky is round, and I have heard that the
earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle.
The moon does the same, and both are round.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing,
and always come back again to where they were.
The life of a [person] is a circle from childhood to childhood,
and so it is in everything where power moves.”

Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks