Today's blog will combine my daily "musings" and my daily Camel of Love Interfaith blog.
Those of you familiar with the earliest stories in the Bible will remember the story of creation and the flood. (If not,you might want to review them in the early chapters of Genesis so you will "get" what I am talking about in this blog.)
The Bible tells us that early on in human history, there was a great flood, in which everyone perished except a man named Noah and his family, who were saved in a wooden boat/Ark which finally landed on a mountain top. Noah set out a raven, then a dove, and when the dove returned with a leaf in its mouth, he knew he and his family and the animals he had saved in the Ark could get out and begin creating a new life in the new world emerging from the old one.
The Yavapai, a tribe of Native Americans who have lived in this area for centuries, have a story with interesting parallels as well as differences. They tell of three world previous to this one, which were destroyed by ice, by fire, and lastly by flood. One woman was spared from the flood. Her people put her in a big log(which they sealed with pitch) along with some food, seeds, and a dove, and told her to stay in it until she felt it stop floating and come to rest. Then she could get out.
A great flood drowned all people, but the woman, named Komidapukwia (GrandMother White Stone) survived. When the log she was in finally grounded on the top of the tallest peak in this area of Sedona (some say it was Thunder Mountain, which I can see from our house to the east) she sent out the dove. When it returned with a bit of greenery in its mouth , she knew she could get out and live. She planted the seeds and created a new world. Since she was the only person alive, she couldn't conceive in the usual way. So she went up on Mingus mountain (not far from here) and allowed the sun's first rays at dawn to enter into her. Then she went to a cave and allowed water to also drip into her birth canal. Thus, she became pregnant (an interesting version of a virgin birth!) and had a daughter. When her daughter came of age, she did the same thing and had a son. Unfortunately, when the son was just a baby, its mother was killed by a huge eagle. So GrandMother White Stone had to raise her grandson alone. She taught him all about medicine plants and the laws of life. They created by singing songs around the land, rather like Aslan in C.S. Lewis's book "The Magician's Nephew" in the Chronicles of Narnia.
Now here's an interesting thing. I have been studying these Yavapai stories as part of my getting to know and understand where I live better. This story was certainly in my mind when I went out for my sunrise walk a few days ago, and as I descended into a wash not far from here (a dry riverbed) I looked up at the stone wall opposite me and saw the images in the rock which are portrayed in the pictures above. Now I know the story was affecting my imagination, but I do think the figure of an old woman's head and outstretched arms are discernible, don't you? And the dove in her hand on the right side of the picture is pretty clear, wouldn't you say?
I also found I could perch in a ledge below her head as if it were her lap. So I did. I sat in First Woman's lap (Great Grandmother White Stone) and played my flute and wondered what it would be like to be the first and only person in a new world.
Then I pondered the poetic/metaphoric meaning of the story, and realized that every morning at sunrise, I am given a new world, a new day, and the Dove of the Spirit to help me, and I get to create my day, and my life, with thoughts and songs of gratitude and gladness. I can imagine what would make a wonderful day, and life, and with the Creator Spirit working through me, create, as Mother Theresa said, "something beautiful for God." And so can you!
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