The Love Of The Ancestors

Many of you know that my partner has gone through a great deal very recently. We had thought, at one point that she would leave us, but she is still going strong and thanks The Great Spirit daily, while singing in the day.

Up wards twenty years ago we met while working in a working farm market. I worked the fields, and she sold our goods. She was an excellent sales person, and her charisma seemed to pull people into the store. But then, her honesty is what brought them back. She was known for stopping a sale as it did not smell right to her; the meat did not look right etc. She just could not seem to "just push the sale through..."

She comes from a family much different than my own. She never lacked for anything while growing up, and even had plenty left over to go around to those she so enjoyed helping. That was a sore spot with her parents, but she worked for what she gave away and would not be turned away from her heart.

The field workers were not supposed to mingle with the store workers, we were of a different breed and were not supposed to give off the image that would cause, but she was often out in the fields, or in the break room with us.

Talk about marching to the beat of a different drummer.

We became fast friends. When she met my family for the first time, it was SHE who took my arm and made the first step to walk to our lodge. I tried to hang back out of shame.

I knew what her home looked like, and she was out of her class. When meeting with my family, she treated all as if they were special, and she had known them for years. I had had to quit school early to help support the family, and she was not affected by the squalor in which we lived.

The road was a difficult one. She met with our Medicine Man, and she carried on conversations, and shared HER medicine with him. He was impressed. When I made the announcement that I would like to ask her Father for her hand, all of that erupted into a war field of fear. The family knew YEARS before I even hinted it to her, what my intentions were.

When I told her that The Ways dictated that she would have to leave her family and live as mine for a period of no less than one year in order to see the intent of her heart, she readily accepted. We set her up in a hunter's cabin (One room. No bathroom, no running water, none of the luxuries of men) on the edge of The Land. And left her alone.

Strange lights would crackle and rise from her fires. Conversations were heard when we knew that she was alone. She went out every day in search of herbs and other medicines that she was prevented from purchasing. She learned quickly, and always with a smile on her face.

The final step was a month in the lodge of The Medicine Man.

As a female, she would be expected to help out should there be a medical need. What we had found out was that, at times, her medicine was just as strong, if not more so than his. On her own, she knew exactly when to thank The Great Spirit, when to silently wait, and when to try again. Her healing songs were strong, and we had never before seen such strength from one not of our Ways.

At the end of her trial, she was asked one question. This is when we knew her heart. She was asked what her reason for going forward was. Why was it that she got up every morning and did all of these things that she was seen doing, knowing that she would receive no reward? Her answer was a simple one; she said that when things got tough, the Ancestors carried her.

She explained that she had been visited on several counts by the Old Ones, and especially when she was in need of help that she knew she could not ask for. She said that earthly rewards were not what she was striving for, that there was a greater purpose and someday, when she looked The Horsemen in the face, she would KNOW if she passed or failed.

The next April we were married, and she became MY warrior. At the ceremony she received her Path name, one that only she feels does not quite fit and the skies lit up with what can only be described as The Northern Lights would be. A rainbow of flickering colors that were seen too far away from the North Pole to actually BE them. The ceremonial fires spit sparks that represented the Ancestors visiting, and the owls stood silent for just one night.

This may not sound like a ghost story in the means that most of these are, but I would submit that it is a Spiritual story. One in which the Spirits of The Elders brought to me, and taught for US a beautiful woman who has much medicine, and lives between the realm on a daily basis. She walks with the Spirits, and is taught by all they have to offer. All while asking for nothing.