When I was a teenager and had my first job, I lived in a motel that charged $1 a day. I had a mean boss and hated my job, and when I went home to my motel room, I was so afraid I'd push furniture in front of my door. I mostly lived on cereal or ketchup I'd pour into boiling water and pretend it was tomato soup.
I got fired from my job and only had ten dollars in the world. I didn't know how I'd pay my rent or buy food. There was no one who would help me.
While I was walking around town looking for a job, I saw a poster on a window that said the circus was coming to town and the admission was free.
I'd never been to a circus, and I thought it might cheer me up if I went to a circus. At the circus they had a huge elephant named Francis, and for five dollars, you could ride Francis.
Well, I only had ten dollars in the world. It would be crazy to spend five dollars to ride an elephant. But suddenly, there was nothing in the world I wanted to do more than ride an elephant.
I spent five dollars to ride Francis. It was wonderful. In fact, it was so wonderful that I spent my last five dollars for a second ride.
I might be poor and unemployed and I might live in a shabby motel and I didn't have a friend in the world, but I had ridden an elephant named Francis!
I felt like a queen.
My life got better, and I was sure it was because I'd ridden an elephant. I'd taken a chance, I'd risked all I had. I felt brave.
While I was walking around town, putting in applications at every place I thought might hire me, I stopped on a street corner, waiting for the light to change to green. I noticed a letter laying in the gutter that seemed to have a foreign language written on it. I picked up the letter and read it. It was from a Navajo Mission in New Mexico, they were searching for a young, single, Christian girl to help in the mission. There was no salary but she'd get twenty dollars a week for personal spending money.
I felt like it was a message from God. I called the mission and volunteered to catch a bus to New Mexico the next day. I borrowed twenty dollars from my minister to buy a bus ticket, and the next day I was on a bus headed for New Mexico.
I stayed at the mission three years. The missionary couple I worked with seemed like the mother and father I never had. I loved the work, loved the missionaries, and loved the Navajo people. It was three of the best years of my life. I would have stayed there for years but the missionary man became very ill, and they had to close the mission. I was sad to leave.
If I hadn't had the courage to ride an elephant, I might not have had the courage to find a letter in the gutter, contact the mission and jump on a bus and spend three of the best, happiest years of my life serving God.
When my daughter, Storm, moved to Boston, she was looking for work as a secretary or a clerk in a store. She walked down to the harbor and was admiring the ships docked there. One ship was tall with beautiful sails and flags waving in the wind. The captain of the ship shouted to her that they were about to sail away and asked if she had her ticket for the two-hour cruise.
She shouted back that she was looking for work and couldn't afford the cruise. The captain hollered, "We're short one pirate. Do you want a job as a pirate?"
And my daughter, without hesitation, ran and jumped onto the deck of the ship. She didn't know the captain or crew, but it was a beautiful, tall ship sailing for Cape Cod and she was going to be a pirate!
She spent the summer on the ship, dressing as a pirate and having fake sword fights. In the fall the ship left for the Bahamas where the captain spent the winters, and she got a job in a gift shop. But for one summer, she was a pirate on a tall ship.
She'd ridden her elephant.
Life is short, and most of it is boring, but once in awhile we get an opportunity to ride an elephant or be a pirate on a tall ship.
It's scary to take a risk. We might fail, or make fools of ourselves. Or we might have an adventure we'll remember the rest of our life.
In my life, I've probably failed more often than I've succeeded, but I think I had more pride in the things I failed at than the things I succeeded in.
I've failed, but I had the courage to try.
My daughter was a pirate on a tall ship. And I rode an elephant named Francis.
Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be though dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. (Joshua 1:9)
Crying Wind is the
author of Crying Wind, My Searching Heart, When the Stars Danced, Thunder in Our Hearts, Lightning in Our Veins, and Stars in the Desert. See https://www.indianlife.org/store/ to order.
