I, Miriam Moore, read The Walking People, by Paula Underwood. Paula has a rhythm and the words sing themselves, using the iambic rhythm. Sometimes I am able to really find the gorgeous song inside the words. I have a comic book ink and brush illustration
The games of War we played became more. We had impartial groups, divergent, impartial, would adjudicate.
Eastern and Western doors. We can destroy our Brother at the North in their adversity. Or we can help our brothers and they will learn our value of Peace.
those learned in War learned better ways of War, and those in Peace learned better ways of Peace. No seelf-interest entered judgment, and even handedness all around. Delaying decision past present anger allow pertinent description of this circumstance, walking a mind path, and the mind follows.
This is my Absolute Favorite Episode.
Some of us pack up and move our houses. Others grow, gather, and prepare wherewith to eat. Several with strong eyes and bodies watch these pole pounding people, and report back. We move to a marshy bog, a place in which we know no one wants to live. We are in our new location by the time leaves begin to fall.
on the third spring, we awaken to a People so enamored of their own voice that any other. seems a mere cacophonous noise
We find more land for our People at the edge of tumbling waters. We call the Lake Beautiful.
We remembered and sought to learn through that memory. We came to understand Water Walking, and the pattern, if not the purpose, of the Great Earth Snake. We were a dig and carry people, who understood how much might change from the moving of small amounts of earth over many seasons' circles.
We may yet be able to rebuild like our Central Place.
We rose and walked East one night, carrying with us what we could, leaving all else behind.
toward the Eastern sea
This People divided into 5 civilizations on their island home, each people excelling in some technical practice, all perfecting the use of sailing on water. Then one day their priests warned of an impending earthquake and black rain, and the destruction of their Island home. We have a plan for our escape. We sail one company a year, each choosing their new coastline home.
We settle in our near island in a great curve of the Oh-Hi-Yo, living well, growing our Three Sisters. Our neighbors wear discs around their neck which reflect a yellow light. We name them Sun People. Our Sun People neighbors invite us to work for them. They also plant corn, yet do not know beans nor squash. They invite us to come work for them, growing their corn and carrying their loads, and they will feed, clothe , and protect us. We hide our laughter at their impertinence, yet choose to send some of us in rota to learn what we can about growing corn and their way of monumental building. We are at it for too long. We find a way to insert a young learning person and he finds a Sun person friend. We soon may learn what their history is.
Those of Strong Spirit Eye sought their own learning. Our great success discourages further learning.
The best way of learning is for the Person themself to decide the path of their interest. The best practice of teacher is to listen. Every learner, regardless the path will turn back to the People, and add to our knowledge of the world.
Another refinement for the People's learning way, as they find the long adventurous learning path of two young historians with two very different ways of storing information. How does the historian with youth and strong bodies bring the facts into Wisdom for themselves and to their communities?
The telling of Red Squirrel and Grey
We Call the river Beautiful. We learn to honor the hunters of larger four-footed by using every part, claw and antler, "bone and sinew, hide and hair; yet who can find a use for either eye?" None of our four footed brother should needlessly offer up his life. We remember the Great Tree Eaters, who were like beaver, except for how they rested their tail, and great size. The time came when none at all were found.
We come to understand our Ancient Songs held much accuracy. As we search among the trees for open places to encourage seeds, we stumble across the folded remnants of a gathering, who were a People. Walking among them, we saw they were a small people, who were said to be the first to arrive on this Great Island. one of them, and infant, still breathed. We tell how it was with him, his ways of learning, and his speech.
How two thirds of the People crossed the Grass Ocean, celebrating Moon for ease of walking, and No Moon for ease of sleeping. We do not remember how many days or months we walked, in celebration of the long trip of The Strong Young Men who counted not the days, looking for our way through the ,endless mountains to our West.
Squash Blossom turns South with the extra seeds she had grown and stored for such a parting.
When we plant and forget our garden, the plants may yet grow, and sustain the future's hungry.
Squash Blossom, a new name, never before given, to one whose footsteps predict plenty
We discover new seeds in a large pod: Squash!
Easeful living and Ancient Songs in our settlements in the Sheltered Valley. We see a new people who were bear and not bear. These had long fur, were tall, yet never walked on four feet. We saw them carry bundles. When they walk between our houses, taking an interest in our women who are proving to themselves they will not bring out young, we start discussing security issues. Then the winters become colder, and the summers shorter and colder. We must make a great change.
Our decisions about the Ancient songs in our new comfortable valley. We live here in comfort for many generations.
We begin to realize the telling of our long walk south through endless mountains was lost. We wonder how no one remembered to tell of it, and determine that we will sing of our such paths, however usual it may seem.
2005? LaDonna Coy sent me her telling of a story I do not otherwise know. Another voice singing soul songs.
What it is to be one of a People for whom guilt and sin just is not even possible to think about. There is so much that brings joy and kindness.
They will never be able to do so, and will never believe this. They will only think that they can make it for themselves as if we had never lived near them, sent our young, and some of our women, to live with them; nor we the people, who truly lived near them.
How do they communicate without using words, and why do the male persons outnumber the female persons two to three? We discover they cannot see us beyond a certain distance, nor if we approach unseen and do not move. Three of our strongest women decide to go among them to get an even closer look.
A summary of our walks, our learning places, and our sought for next edge of ocean home. We travel east again. We arrive at another ocean, and this is the story of our arrival.
the names of the people Paula Underwood writes into print as the story develops into book form. Thank you, Texas hill country, for holding a conference of enablers so I could be drawn to the feast!
We meet a people who had lived along the southern edge of the great walls of ice, and who wore forever clothing. They ask us to teach them to swim, yet will not learn our straight leg kicking motion. They were finding ocean growing higher on the land a challenge to traveling to safety away from the Angry Ones who rode the great beasts with the long head. We help them find a way to cross to other islands by tying themselves to a shaped log, still wearing all their clothes, and aiding their very young, they accomplish their goal to reach their goal, even with self imposed difficulty.
This is a deeply satisfying and humorous dance for our imaginations. It is a historical story about climate change, our newly hairless bodies, how we lost our hair, and how we survived a new ice age through the wisdom of a grieving aged grandfather and his desire to help the young ones survive as these nights grew colder.
the value of listening ears. A people lost on a faceless water . Renewed purpose fills our hearts. Let us remember our beginning.
how ancient wisdom had at one time, counted only eight winters.