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Every morning I stand on my porch and toss peanuts to four squirrels that live in the trees in my yard. The squirrels listen for my door to open and scurry out of the bushes and climb down from the trees and come and sit in a line and wait for me to toss each of them a peanut. This morning I only had one peanut left in the bag and I tossed it into the yard expecting the fastest squirrel to grab the nut and run with it. Instead the four squirrels got into a fight and while...
All the song birds in the forest had stopped singing. They were afraid of a giant hawk that had just moved into the forest and was killing the small songbirds. They stopped singing because when the hawk heard them singing he'd swoop down, grab them with his talons and carry them away and eat them. Only the partridge was safe from the hawk because his brown feathers blended with the dirt and weeds and the partridge didn't sing pretty songs or fly higher than a bush so the hawk...
I ate a bug—not just any bug. I ate a roach. The memory still makes me shiver. My friend, Francis, was one of those people who just never seemed to get a break. When she was young she was taller than the other kids so she slumped and developed humped shoulders. She had crooked teeth that her parents never had the money to fix and she had to wear thick glasses. I don’t think she ever had a date. She lived at home with her parents until she was 40 and she worked as a teller in...
Most of us will say we don’t really care about getting gifts for Christmas and that gifts aren’t important and aren’t the true meaning of Christmas. However, I think most of us would like to receive something special. Children are more honest and have long lists of toys and games they are hoping to find under the tree Christmas morning. If we adults were as honest as children and made a long list of things we’d really like, we might ask for a new house, a better car, a big s...
Snow Flower watched her son as he sat on a log with his head down. She knew once again Little Fox had been left behind as the other young boys went off to play. Little Fox was small for his age and not as strong as the other boys. They often ignored him and left him out of their games which hurt him deeply. Snow Flower sat next to her son. She wanted to put her arm around him to comfort him but she knew it would only embarrass him in front of the other boys so she sat with...
Coyote sat on the rocky mesa and howled at the moon. He was sure no other animal on earth could be as happy as he was. He was free. He ate when he was hungry. Slept when he was tired. He could run alone or run in a pack, the choice was his. Coyote was strong, he could run as fast as the wind, his howl could be heard for miles and he knew he was the smartest animal in the desert. Coyote was happy with his life until winter came. This was the coldest winter he could remember....
Two years ago my daughter Spring Storm, asked me to make a buckskin shirt for her. She said she wanted dark leather, long fringe with tin cones on it and she wanted bead work with images of lightning bolts and coyotes. I promised that I would make the shirt for her. Then I completely forgot about my promise and luckily for me, she also forgot about it. One morning I was drinking a cup of coffee when there was a flash of lightning outside of my window followed by a crack of...
The wolf pack raced through the forest. Tala was the largest and most fierce of the wolves. He leaped at a doe that jumped over a ravine and narrowly escaped Tala’s sharp fangs. The doe scrambled towards the safety of the deer herd and Tala and the other wolves began to surround the deer. Suddenly, Dyani a huge buck with sixteen points on his antlers came forward and shook his mighty rack at Tala. “Leave my herd alone, go chase rabbits and other game. If you attack us, I will...
We all wish we could turn time backward and change something we’ve done or something we didn’t do. I was talking to a friend last week and he is convinced he has ruined his life and he’ll never recover from a mistake he made. I tried to encourage him and tell him it wasn’t the end of the world, but he is filled with regret and thinks he’ll never be happy again. He has lost his self-confidence and every day he relives his mistake over and over in his mind. We’ve all done th...
Christmas stirs up so many memories. Hopefully most of the memories are of happy times with loved ones and may our hearts be touched by the message of the birth of Jesus. I’ve had some wonderful Christmases and I’ve had some that weren’t very merry. When I was newly married, my husband and I lived on a little farm in Oklahoma. It had been a hard year and almost everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong. My husband lost his job in November and he was cutting fire...
I don’t know why God made mosquitoes but He must have had a good reason. Apparently mosquitoes have been annoying people since the beginning of time and almost every tribe has a legend to explain how mosquitoes were created. A long time ago there were two tribes who both wanted to live in the valley near a lake. Big Elk was the chief of the tribe that had average-sized warriors but Blue Crow was the chief of the other tribe who had giant warriors that were as tall as young t...
Ann didn’t have the money to buy a nice gift for Joe for his birthday so Ann gave her husband a rock. It wasn’t a pretty rock or an unusual rock, it was just a smooth, round rock she’d picked up in her yard. On one side of the rock she’d used a marking pen to write “Always” and on the other side of the rock she’d written “Never.” “I’m giving you two words for your birthday, always and never,” she said. “I’ll always be here for you, I’ll always love you, I’ll always be faithful...
What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done? A man might answer that question by saying he fought in a war. A woman might say letting her only child leave home took the most courage. I’ve survived fires, floods, blizzards, accidents, earthquakes and illness but what has taken the most courage wasn’t disasters. What has taken the most courage has been small things that went unnoticed by others. It takes courage to do things we don’t want to do but know they are the right t...
Have you ever gone for a walk in the forest and had the feeling something was watching you or following you? You are certain something is looking at you and you hope it is a deer and not a bear. Most of us aren’t in any real danger of being attacked or eaten by a bear. That doesn’t’ mean we aren’t afraid or that there aren’t dangerous things in our lives. We worry about our families, our health, our finances, our jobs, our friends. These are very real fears to us. Other people...
My favorite story in the Bible is the beautiful story of the night Jesus was born. We’ve all seen paintings of the Nativity and we’ve seen plays and movies and, of course, Christmas cards showing baby Jesus in the manger surrounded by Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the Wise Men and the angels. Maybe it didn’t happen exactly the way it is shown on a Christmas card but in my mind and in my heart, that is how I want to think of it. I want to think of the Wise Men riding camel...
This week I received a priceless gift from a woman I’ve never met. Gretchen attends the same church I attended as a teenager. I haven’t been back to that church since I was young, but regardless of how many churches I’ve attended since that time, that small old church was always “The” church. The one that changed my life, saved my life, it’s where I found God. Gretchen sent me an old hymnal from the church. It was worn and well used, the pages fell open to favorite hy...
I heard something thumping and banging in the lobby of the building where I live. I went outside into the hallway and saw a young sparrow in the hallway and he was flying against the large window next to the door. The door was wide open and the bird had obviously flown inside through the door but now he was confused and he kept flying against the window. He could see the trees and the sky through the glass. He could also see his home, but no matter how hard he tried, he...
Long ago there was a beautiful Cherokee maiden named White Flower. Three braves were in love with her, Big Elk, Thunder Sky and Winter Wolf. White Flower loved all three of them equally and she could not make up her mind. She knew each of them loved her and that they were all handsome, strong and honorable and any one of them would make a good husband. She decided to test the men to find out who loved her the most and she would marry the man who won the three challenges....
There is an old legend about a gentle young woman named Autumn Sunset who loved all the creatures in the forest. She could talk to the birds and the deer and the rabbits and no animal was afraid of her because they knew she was their friend. Every day Autumn Sunset would walk in the forest and the animals would gather around her and follow her. When she would lay down in the soft grass to rest, the animals would lay down in a circle around her. Sometimes the warriors in the...
I spend too much time alone and my world and my life have become small. I read a self-help book that said if I was in a rut and I wasn’t happy with my life, to do three new things in one week and it would change my life. The book promised I’d meet new people, make new friends and have an adventure. I knew I needed to make the effort or I was going to turn into a hermit so I decided the first thing I’d do would be to attend a new church, share in a different kind of servi...
What was Christmas like for you when you were a kid?” Don asked. “We didn’t celebrate Christmas. We didn’t believe in God,” I answered. “Lots of people celebrate Christmas who don’t believe in God,” Don said. “You mean you didn’t do anything at all about Christmas?” “No—oh, I remember once a girlfriend of one of my uncles gave me a present. It was a little bottle of hand lotion. I’d never had anything like that before. It seemed like such a grown-up gift, and I was so...
I have a nativity set I put out on my table every Christmas. The three wise men are pretty worn. One is missing a nose and one had his head broken off and glued back on but it is crooked and permanently bowed but that’s OK. The camel’s legs were broken off and replaced with short pencils that were painted brown. The donkey is missing an ear. Joseph is missing a hand but Mary and Baby Jesus are still in good condition. I guess it isn’t very pretty anymore but it means somet...
People ask me the strangest questions. Why don’t you live in a teepee? Why don’t you make a pair of moccasins for me? Why don’t you know how to cook a buffalo? Why don’t you know some secret herbs and plants to cure my arthritis? Why aren’t you rich from all the Indian casino money? When I say I live in a house, I don’t make moccasins for people, I don’t know how to cook a whole buffalo and I don’t know any herbs to cure arthritis and I’ve never received a penny of casino m...
