The Lesson of the Rock

The Shaman knit his brows, perplexed. He had been trying to convey a message to the young man, but to no avail. He had been trying to explain that, thanks to the gods, all things that should happen, do. The young man failed to grasp the thread. The Shaman was at a loss.

It was the custom, for those that walked the foothills of the great western mountains, to learn the lessons offered by the wilderness in which they lived. To learn how to have the eyes of the eagle, the strength of the great bear, the wisdom of the raven, and the cunning of the rattlesnake, the studied each of the these creatures and emulated them.

Lessons were to be found elsewhere, as well. The Honey Bee would teach the lesson of finding water in an unknown territory. The antelope would teach the lesson of listening for an enemy's approach. The mountain lion would teach the lesson of stealth in providing food for a family.

The Shaman knew that each living creature, each mountain, each pebble on a beach held a life lesson for his people. Most of them were easy to teach, even so far as picking up lessons that the Shaman had missed. This young man, however, simply refused to accept the lessons at face value. He wanted more. He demanded every thing, every answer at once.

The tribe was completing the spring trek to the north. They would spend the summer in the rolling foothills where the earth under the prairie grass was black as coal, and the shiny yellow pebbles littered the streams coming from the great western mountains. Soon they would arrive at their summer encampment where the men would hunt the shaggy giants, the women would dry meat, and make leather robes from the hides, and the children would grow strong. Soon, the Shaman would have to make the young man understand the patience required to learn the lessons needed to make the journey of life.

One night, while discussing the stars in the sky above, the young man had asked three times about the large bear chasing the small bear around the sky. Three times the Shaman had told him the small bear was trying to escape, but couldn't because the Moon had pinned the small bear's tail to the fabric of the sky, and all it could do was run around a circle while the end of it's tail remained in the same place each night. Three times the young man questioned how the moon had managed to trap the bear and pin it's tail.

Three times the Shaman tried to explain that the >how' wasn't as important as the >was'. It didn't matter how the Moon trapped the small bear, it mattered that the end of the tail on the small bear appeared in the same place in the night sky while all the other stars, to a greater or lesser degree, moved. Three times the young main failed to see the relevance to the 'was', and centered on the 'how'.

One evening, in exasperation, the young man exclaimed that the Shaman would find a lesson in everything around him. In answer, the Shaman replied that the young man would fail to understand the simplest lesson from the smallest part of God's world. "You are finally right about one thing," the old man intoned "there is a lesson to be learned from everything. Go now, come and see me in the morning and I will give you a fine example." With that, the Shaman turned his back and waited until the young man departed. "Now", he thought, "what to do for a lesson.'

The following morning, almost before the sun's rays began their march down the vast rolling hills, the young man was seated outside the wickiup of the Shaman. After a few minutes of waiting, the hide door of the wickiup was thrown forcefully open, and the Shaman strode out to the morning. Looking about, pretending not to notice the young man, the Shaman took in the morning. Turning his gaze from one side of the valley to the other, breathing deeply he shouted his ritual morning greeting: HOTA HEY, meaning it is a good day to die. Then he turned and strode out of the camp, heading for the stream. At the edge of the encampment, he turned and fixed the young man with his eyes. "Are you going to wait for the answer to come to you?" Then he turned and walked on.

Even though the young man was very fit, he had a hard time catching up with the old Shaman. By the time he caught up with the old man, the Shaman had already seated himself, crossed legged, above the stream, next to a rock protruding from the ground. Slightly winded, the young man allowed himself to collapse nest to the rock. "What took you so long, young man?" The old man was smiling slightly.

"You fool me with your strength, old one." The young man was embarrassed for having failed to catch up with his mentor.

"You will need to know many things before you can undertake the battles that will lie before you. Never show all your strength. always hold back something. You can never tell when you will Need the extra."

The young man considered the words, filing them away with the rest of his life lessons. "Is that the lesson? I failed to see the example you spoke of." He moved to sit upon the rock.

"No, that lesson was a surprise. I would have gotten to it eventually. I will still prove it to you again. The lesson I had in mind, you've chosen for a perch."

The young man started, then rolled off the rock. "I have a lesson from a rock?" He was completely unaware of anything a rock could teach.

"Rocks have life lessons as well. They live in a much different way than do you and I. Their life extends from one end of time to the other. With the proper concentration, one can listen to the rocks speak." The look on the young man had on his face caused the old man to pause. AYou do not believe me?"

"I find it heard to believe, old master. I cannot see how rocks can live, let alone talk."

"Believe it, young student. It is so. So, it is up to you to gain the lesson in the rock. You must stay here until the rock speaks to you. When you have the patience to hear the lesson, you will have learned it." The old man stood, and turned to leave. AI will have someone bring you food and a blanket. Remember, do not leave until you have heard the message in the rock." He walked away.

The young man sat next to the rock. After a little while, he sat on the other side of the rock. Then he moved to the uphill side, afterwards, he moved to the downhill side. Late in the afternoon, he received the food and blanket, and settled down next to the rock. He listened intently. He stayed awake all night, listening. He fell asleep shortly before dawn, and when he awoke, he resumed listening. He was determined that you would recover this lesson without having to ask for help from the old man, like he usually ended up doing.

Those days turned into weeks, and eventually months. The sun had traveled half way down the sky, towards the south, and it was time for the encampment to be broken and moved back to the winter grounds, on the edge of the great chasm. The Shaman had almost forgotten about the young man. The tribe had already begun the walk south when the Shaman remembered. He went back to the stream, to see what had become of the impetuous youth. When he got there, the youth was gone. So was the rock.

He examined the earth closely. There was a great tear where the rock had rested, and the ground and surrounding plants were trampled flat. There were many foot prints, and something strange. He saw the prints of a large wolf, and some lines that outlined the path the wolf had taken. The Shaman followed the tracks. Before long, the tracks merged into the tracks of the tribe. The Shaman ceased following the strange tracks and moved to catch up with the tribe.

When he got to the end of the column of families, he caught up with the young man, who was leading a Timber Wolf that was dragging a travious made up of two long poles and several blankets. On the travious lay the rock. They walked together in silence. The old man waiting for the young one to ask his question about the lesson. It was obvious the young man didn't think he had heard the message from the rock, and he was taking it with him to continue listening. When the old man could wait no longer, he spoke "How is it you have a wolf trained to drag the rock for you?"

"He came to me shortly after you left me with the rock. He was injured and I nursed him back to health. He is grateful to me, and he finds it easier to let me feed him than to hunt for himself. Because of that, he agreed to work for his meals."

The Shaman nodded. He had seen wolves domesticated before, but never a grown male, in it's prime. The young man spoke again. "I tried, old master, but I failed to hear the rock speak. I didn't want to wait there through the winter so I decided to bring it with me." The Shaman just nodded again. They continued to walk.

The tribe reached the winter grounds, and the young man continued to listen for the message from the rock. When the following spring came, he again loaded up the travious with the rock, and the wolf dragged it north. The young man waiting patiently for the lesson to be revealed. The seasons came and went. Eventually the Shaman died, and the young man had grown old, replacing his old master as Shaman to their people. Still the rock came and went.

One day, a young an approached the aging Shaman sitting next to the rock. He asked why they dragged the rock from place to place as their people wandered the rolling hills and great plains. "I, too, once asked foolish questions. Now the one I depended on for the answers has gone to hunt with his ancestors. He told me to be patient to gain the lesson from this rock. I've listened for most of my life, and have heard nothing. The one thing it has given me is patience. Now, I no longer question the rock, but wait for it to speak to me. Some day, I will hear the lesson it has to offer."

Not too many years following, the old man died. When his body was discovered, the smile on his face showed his death to be a peaceful one. His people continued to carry the rock from site to site until, many years later, the tribe was removed by the government to a reservation far to the south and east. The rock was left behind.

The night the old man died the sky was clear. He gazed at the stars that filled his vision. He enjoyed evenings like these. While trying to unravel the puzzle of the rock, he often gazed at the stars and wondered what secrets they could reveal. His thoughts would stray from the riddle and the rock to pondering the greater secrets of the universe. That latest evening, while watching the sky, seeing an occasional falling star, he heard an odd sound. He knew, from instinct, that there was no living creature within a hundred paces, but he still heard the sound of a breath being taken. He looked to the rock. It seemed to have changed shape slightly.

As the seconds pass to you and I, years passed for the rock. It enjoyed the many journeys it had taken; the slide down the long valley in front of the glacier, the thaw that had dropped it close to the stream, and the annual migrations of the seekers. The seasonal change of colors with that trees and prairie grass flickered to the rock. Of all the transitory beings that registered to the rock, the one seeker stood out. For all the few times in the centuries of man, the rock would speak, it spoke to the seeker. It said "Patience is the lesson you needed. You are ready for the next step."

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