Six women gathered around the domed-shaped lodge where, inside, a ceremony would commence to purify their minds, bodies and spirits. Prayers would be said and songs would be sung in the ancient language to heal places and people known and unknown.
The effects of this ceremony and those like it are assembled in our conscious minds and in the basic constructions we imagine as "meaning." Meaning is essential to comprehend, to justify, and ultimately, to accept the temporal nature of life as we know it. We can explain our senses and our thoughts as a reflection of the ultimate truth of any situation, but empirically, there is no proof of anything. There is only what we think and how we feel. These are constructs of belief.
The women believe in something greater then themselves. Some call it a higher power, some call it Creator, some call it the Spirit world where their ancestors exist in a different form, yet still completely conscious of this world. Some believe in sentient awareness as the accompanying gift of the Spirit world. As if being dead has a reward: you get to know everything.
As the fire burned in the pit designed to contain it and the wood platform of stones it heated, the wind began to dance. The dance came from the west - the horses came running fast with the bear trailing behind, grunting as his brown fur moved back and forth in waves against the blue sky. A powerful sound was heard when these beings together reached the eastern gate just in time for the first spark from the fire to set the lodge ablaze.
The women moved in harmony like a song waiting to be sung. One covered the fire, one ran for water, one prayed, one grabbed the shovel, one called the fire department, one held the space for the horses and the bear to work together that no one would be harmed. It was a beautiful ancient song.
The ceremony to purify the minds, bodies and spirits of the women had commenced in a way unexpected and unknown in the construction of what they believed. What if this was also ceremony? The unexpected opportunity to understand that songs are not always sung the way we imagine. That prayers are not always prayed the way we know. That the effects of what we do cannot always be quantified by what we believe.
When the fire speaks, we must leave understanding as we know it. We must open.
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