A Sacred Dawnstar

This weeks family camps were amazing. The family reunion I was able to witness was one of the most amazing I have ever seen. Let me set the stage by explaining that when this YW first came to Anasazi, he barely spoke to us and ran 25 miles back to town. Now at the end of his walking, his parents are in sight and he yells out "mom" and runs into her arms. He hugged her with such force that they both fell to the ground. There were tears and much laughter between them. I look forward to the day when I can embrace my parents in such a way, both my earthly parents as well as my Heavenly ones.
I was able to teach a YW all of the path drawings. For the path of water, he taught me a lesson from the water cycle. It was that lakes are always giving through evaporation and precipition. Some of that water comes back to it very quickly through streams and surface runoff. The rest takes longer as it travels deeper within the earth until it hits bedrock and then eventually makes its return to the lake. This is like good things we do for others: sometimes we see immediate returns for our sacrifice and other times those blessings take longer to come to us but eventually they will return. In the path of stone, we talked about how sedimentary rock is like our life. Sedimentary rock is made up of layers and bits of other rocks. We are a product of our experiences, seeds of greatness and thoughts. The Path of We was really cool because I was able to teach it to the YW and his mother at the same time; I don't know of that ever happening before certainly never for me.
At the Dawnstar ceremony, so many wonderful and thought provoking things were said that I can't even remember them all. One of them that was said by one of the YW's was speaking of his walking. He said, "when I first arrived, I couldn't fathom the darkness because I was so deep in it, but I have experienced the light and I don't ever want to go back." This young walker also talked of sitting next to a tree and learning from it that he is still growing mentally and emotionally and will be for the rest of his life. Others spoke of realizing how important having a heart-at-peace is and just how powerful invitation to others to have that same way of being can be.
After the ceremony and final blanket steppings, the two families had their own sacred circle. They drew a spiral into the dirt, which is one of the symbols of the Path of We, and all took turns saying vocal prayers of thanksgiving and help as they reenter the Wilderness of the World. I was amazed and moved to see them doing this. I have never felt a more powerful Family Camp and am trully humbled that I was priveledged to be there among such great people.