The Great Pond

The morning sunlight peeks through my window. Today, we gather stock for the next several days. It takes us a few hours to reach the great pond, my grandfather and I. With our hunting gear, thick fur clothing and boots, we walk through the mountains and many trees to get there. I have lived with my lalá since I was very small. He’s looked after me since my parents died in a nearby forest fire. We visit the burned grounds on every full moon, bringing sage to cleanse the space and ourselves of sorrow. We sit meditatively for some time to chant and send love to their Spirits so that they may safely journey through the heavens and all over the Earth. It is important to preserve our relationship out of respect to the dead and that they may never wander aimlessly in disconnection.

Respect for the dead is not the only Beings we hold a high regard for. Lalá taught me that the key to the healthiest and happiest nourishment from our furry and scaled friends is to honor them. And so we sing praise and meditate before every hunt, blessing the body before it is skinned and carved.

The great pond is my favorite place to be with lalá. This is where we talk about everything under the sun and stars. I am born a woman, but-

“You must embrace your counterpart as oneself. There is no task in this world that is meant only for you and some only meant for me. We are both capable, able-bodied people and must respect one another as such,” he advises.

Through my training, I learned that it is my responsibility to keep this alignment between the divinely creative masculine and feminine energies within me. Because I learned to develop and embrace this, my spirit communicates with the spirit of a man in a way that we may mutually understand each other’s languages, as different as they may be. I am often mesmerized by the relationship I even have with my own grandfather, the connection of regard and empathy.

And so I hunt with lalá in the woods, streams, lakes, mountains, and this pond that stretches for many miles. We are just a couple hours into our hunt for Rainbow trout and Black bullhead and have already caught several game.

“It is busy today.”

“Let’s hope they bless us with many. Lalá, why is fish your favorite anyway?”

He took a long, deep breath and sat quiet for a moment.

“Fish represent a very sacred symbolism to the Spirit World. They live in a home that purifies not only our bodies but cleanses our souls. You see, wakanyeja, humans carry many traumas and sorrows that lay heavy burdens for our minds and our spirits. We come to the waters to release our aching hearts or to repent for our mistakes, shedding tears that wash away the suffering. It is this water element that represents that magical and mysterious world of the unknown. The water beneath is so vast that no man could ever touch every inch by himself, and so the fish guide us in our journeys for gaining the deeper wisdom of our minds and of life itself. When we are lost at sea or when the currents of the waters are stormy, the fish serve as our salvation to spiritual liberation. In the deep, we are connected to everything of both the material world and the Spirit World.”

“But why are the waters so connected to everything? What do the waters possess so special to life besides nourishment and cleansing?”

Lalá pauses at this.

“What was your first home? Do you remember?”

“Of course, I do… we lived near the forest where iná and até had their last breath.”

“Wrong.. Your first home, OUR first home, was the womb of a woman. A man’s seed and her own grows within her flesh where we sprout in this dark wetness and warmth of the womb. This means that we are first water babies - descendants of the fish creatures at best!” he chuckles. “And what does your womb mean to you? What do you feel deep within your own?”

“Well… I feel my instincts here. Or when I am happy, the skin of my stomach feels very warm to the touch.”

“Precisely. This is where the Great Feminine is so powerful because it is her land. When you are in touch with your womb, she gives you access to your ancestors that you share your bloodline with. She invites you to heal from within and soothes your worries. And when man is in touch with where he first comes from, then he feels that warm comfort to know that he is loved. That love that he now knows, then he can give tenderness to others. The feminine energy in all of us is what brings us together; to the table to eat, to the sitting room to commune, to the altar to pray, or to walk side by side with hands fitted together. She connects us in ways that we are spiritually interconnected all over the Earth.”

I left the pond that day, once again, in awe of a wide world that I will truly never know enough of. And so, I still visit this great pond in slow contemplation that this world is far more than it really seems. I remember that there is a world inside the one we see every day and even more, people create their own worlds too!

I touch the skin of my stomach where my womb quietly sits as it listens to my inner world and the one without; my vessel that takes us underneath to the sea creatures as natives who guide us through the unknown and their students be the seekers of a higher understanding.

Yes, I understand my grandfather now. Fish are my favorite too.