Finding Bones with Riekes

Native Eyes was off this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I'm again posting a Story of the Day from the Riekes Nature Awareness group that I lead in Huddart Park. Once again, no photos for this one.

This Friday we scouted the woods near our Super Secret Hideout.

We started the day with games and work on our primitive shelter, and then welcomed the afternoon hours with scout sit spots. We went quietly and stealthily to our sit spots, to find out what cool things were around and bring news of them back to the group. After sitting, we gathered up in our primitive shelter for a repotback from each scout location. One of our number had found some beautifully articulating animal leg bones at her sit spot that hadn't been there last week, so we decided to check out that location further.

On the way, we found and followed animal runs that had been worn-in to the forest floor so well that there wasn't a crumb of leaf litter left on the packed, almost shiny earth. Following the run, we accidentally uncovered a Pacific Giant Salamander hiding in a damp gully, and everyone went utterly hyper on Pacific Giant Salamander energy. Yelling, dancing, silly faces and general tomfoolery ensued.

After many, many minutes of loud and gleeful celebration of the salamander find, the raucous atmosphere began wearing thin and people started yelling at eachother rather than with eachother. We broke that feedback loop with a spontaneous game of camouflage, put the salamander back where we found it, and continued on the trail of the bones.

We finally arrived at the small clearing where the bones lay. Everyone's energy was still scattered and loud. We circled around the bones on our knees and brought the energy down to Earth with a sense meditation.

Everyone in the circle placed a finger on the bones. Using guided visualization, we consciously checked in with our senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and finally sight.

In our meditation we related our senses to that of the animal, a deer, that had passed and left it's bones for us to find. We recognized that this animal had sensed the world much like we now do, had eaten, breathed, and had a family. We considered the animal that had eaten the deer, where it could be in the woods at present, how it had felt when it ate the deer, and the energy that was added to it's life from the deer's own life. Everyone was quiet, still, and focused on the present moment.

"How do you feel when you think about this deer?" I finally asked.

"Sad," came the reply.

"How do you feel when you think about the animal that ate the deer?" I
next asked.

"Happy! ... Um, that's confusing," was the unanimous conclusion.

"Isn't it?" I said.