The Pond in Bluff, Utah by Twin Rocks Trading Post.
The spider broke my glass cleaning trance, and started me thinking about the appropriate response. In the past, I might have quickly smashed it and continued on with my job. Over the last few years, however, I have become more aware of the Navajo perspective, and find that it influences the way I respond to certain things.
Once I curbed my initial impulse to grind the spider into the glass, I began thinking about spiders in the Navajo culture. For example, Spider woman is very important to the Navajo people. She is responsible for teaching them the art of weaving, and also played a significant role in directing the hero twins, Monster Slayer and Born for Water, to their father Jo hona’ai, the bearer of the sun. Spider man taught the people to make their traditional loom, and Navajo parents often rub spider webs on the hands of their young offspring in the hope it will make the children good weavers.
As you might guess, all this tradition makes spiders extremely important to the Navajo. Therefore, one must be careful not to offend these crawly beings. Keeping that in mind, I resisted the urge to terminate the spider and went about my cleaning duties. Not five minutes later two women walked into the trading post. I continued to polish the glass as they browsed the merchandise. Outside the hot wind was gusting, and a small whirlwind began to spin across the gravel parking lot.
Despite protests from her partner, one of the women dashed outside and into the dust devil. As her hair flew in every direction, I turned to Barry and asked, “What does it mean when someone gets caught in a whirlwind?” Barry indicated that it is okay if the wind is spinning to the right, but that it’s bad luck if the whirlwind is spinning left. He also said that they can suck the life out of you if you don’t keep your mouth closed as one passes over you.
This particular dust devil was moving clockwise and, although she was smiling broadly, the woman’s mouth appeared closed. Barry and I concluded she was going to be all right. The dust devil daredevil’s companion gave us a look of concern and hastily exited the trading post, intent on helping her friend avoid additional risk.
It was at that point that I began to realize how the trading post culture had become ingrained in me. I am sure it happened slowly, gradually building up over the years, but I hadn’t really considered the extent of the accumulation. The point was driven home barely a day later, as a thunder storm moved across the valley.
The last few weeks have been extraordinarily hot in Bluff. Some visitors and residents hinted at 112 degree temperatures. My mind doesn’t work well with extreme numbers. To me it is either hot, really hot or, “Honey, grab the kids and let’s go to the pond; I can’t take this heat any more" hot. We had been in the let’s go to the pond phase for several days when the storm clouds began to roll in. In fact, we had been to the swimming pond just hours before, but that hadn’t fully cured my heat prostration.
Little by little, the clouds began to release their droplets, until it became a full blown downpour. I found myself standing on the porch with my hands raised to the sky. Jana was standing next to me wondering what I was doing with my hands in the air, and Grange was peeking out the door thinking we had both lost our minds.
As my palms became drenched with rain, I remembered the words of Stormy Reddoor, the self-proclaimed great grandson of Sitting Bull, who took me out in a storm one afternoon and said, “When the rains come, lift your hands to the sky, capture a little of the moisture, spread it on your face and give thanks.” There I was, soaking wet, rubbing the droplets on my face and giving thanks. Stormy hadn’t told me whom to thank, so I just thanked everyone.
Copyright©2002 Twin Rocks Trading Post
No comments:
Post a Comment