As you can see I'm in a blogging mood tonight. This last weekend I was once again on the Trail and it was a good weekend for me. The Young Walker I had was not that easy, I had a difficult time reading her and getting to know her. Friday was spent in the office and she rarely spoke to us. We got out to the Trail well after dark, so we just unpacked and went to bed.
Saturday I had a difficult time getting her out of her sleeping bag. I tried everything short of grabbing the end of her sleeping bag and dumping her out. I had to be a little pushy since we had to eat breakfast, do the blanket stepping, pack and hike three miles before it got dark. At one point she asked me if I had any coke (I thought she meant a soda) but she clarified for me that she meant cocaine. I was a little taken aback by this statement. (something you need to understand is that as a Trailwalker I don't know their backstory and the reasons they are there, this is so that I can love them for who they are and not be distracted by preconceived ideas based on labels) I couldn't believe that she was seventeen and addicted to such a hard substance; although, it did add a little clarity as to why she was on the thin side.
We did make it to camp before dark; she actually hiked really well, but I noticed as the day went on that she became more and more defiant as the other TW and I tried to get her to participate in things like fire circle. Her defiance put a rankle in my plans of how this weekend would go and I became worried that she would not get done with rabbitstick by the usual monday afternoon. (my worst week ever on the Trail was when I let my ideas of how the week should go clash with how the week actually went. My Way of Being became a heart-at-war towards the Young Walkers and I lost the respect and trust of the YWs which led to utter chaos by the end of the week)
That night and the next morning I prayed to know what I needed to do to help this Young Walker. I realized that the first thing was too get my Way of Being ok with the idea that I might have to stay out a couple extra days and let my preconceived ideas go. When I realized that, I was much more patient. I realized that I needed to follow the Anasazi Way of constantly inviting but not forcing.
The next morning I got up early as usual but I did not press the YW to get up. She slept in for most of the morning which was probably a good thing. But what was amazing was that after she got up she immediately went to cooking herself breakfast. After she was finished, I asked her if she wanted to start working on her RS skills and she said yes. She went right to work and got quite a few things accomplished. That night we invited her again to fire circle and she actually participated. She was much more talkative with us and even began smiling a little.
Monday morning I did the same thing and she got up even earlier than the day before. Amazingly we helped her get all her RS requirements finished and she was in the band by early afternoon. I couldn't believe it. If you had asked me Saturday morning if she would have gotten everything done that quick I would have said no way, but the Creator gave us the inspiration to know exactly how to work with this YW and invite her to start a new beginning. It was a great learning experience for me in following the Anasazi Way and to see the powerful impact inviting someone can have.
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