A Stone Wakes

We gathered from the four winds, drawn by the spirit, teased and tugged by

invisible hands to the rail tressle at the northwest end of Nicollet Island.

Drums, guitar, flute, sitar, song, dance... Pulsing to the beat of human

hearts, of dreams and desires, and to the rhythm of the trains as they

cross. We were frozen in time, in the dancing flame, in the womb of the

mist that hovers above the slow, inexorable, deep life of the river.

I carried with me a stone, a smooth, glittering sliver of obsidian, born

of volcanic fire, polished and ground...a gift from the womb of the mother.

Within the stone was the power and strength of the earth, glowing steadily

in healing warmth, a gift from the High Priest for the healing of my son.

The priest had charged me to take this stone to the river, to fill it with

the cleansing life of its flow, and so I carried this gift to seek the

blessing of the river spirit. As I sat, legs dangling over the river,

the steady pulse of drums around me, I sang to her. I sang... Spirit

of the Ri......ver..... Spirit of the Ri......ver...... I called her with

sweet song, with passion and praise, and she came gently swirling around me

in the mist. She came, flowing through me slowly, gently, through the circle

of my arms, into the amorphous crystal of the stone.

As the stone glowed with the river's power, I gave my own gift, the gift

of mind, of consciousness. The stone awoke, a living being, aware of

self and destiny, a stone with a purpose, with a mission. I sang the

song of the stone, I gave voice to its passions. I, stone, sang to the

river, to the mist in which I swam, where the river is one with the wind.

I, stone, became wind, sky, cloud, and I flowed through the valleys and

over the mountains, caressing the earth, knowing as never before that

her shape and substance define my own...and within her glows a heart of

fire, and from that ocean of fire she gave me birth. Over her and in

her the river flows to the sea and the sea rests forever in her arms.

We are one...we are one...I, stone, have blessed the river, the mist,

the wind, the cloud, the valley, the mountain, the fire, the sea. I have

loved them, and they me. They bless me. They give of themselves to

my passion, my destiny. They fill me with their breath and inspiration.