A few months ago, while in the Arizona desert, I spent the day with a self-proclaimed energy healer. I was only supposed to have lunch with this man…but at the end of lunch he said if I was willing, he would take me around the desert and show me the ancient sacred sites. I immediately knew that he was sent as a teacher for me. I accepted his invitation and spent the day hanging on his every word wondering what the lesson was for me.
One by one he carried me to these historical sites. He was so knowledgeable of this region’s history and the people who lived there. It took everything in me to “pay attention”.   My spirit knew he was sent to teach me something….but if I’m keeping it real, I was disinterested.  It didn’t matter to me what tools they used to chop trees and I didn’t need to look at 100 broken pieces of pottery or the method in which they used to make it. It was clear by the cliff dwellings that these people where here…now….about that lesson I’m supposed to learn? “Where are we going now?” I asked him. To another museum he responded,  wait until you see the pottery  there!” Urgh , I thought.Â
When we got to the 5th ruin, he began to talk about the Hopi Indians and how he has spent time on their reservation. He claimed they were still there, in the middle of the desert, living as they have lived for thousands of years. NOW….I was intrigued! Tell me more I said! He said that I must experience it to get the full understanding of their powerful culture. Wow, I thought a powerful native tribe living on the land of their ancestors. This I must experience.  With the day almost over, he promised that when I came through again….with some advanced notice….he would introduce me to the tribe elder and escort me on the land.
As the sun was setting we said our goodbyes.  Driving away…I was glad to be alone again. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, and someday I may have greater appreciation for the “things” is saw that day in the desert with the energy healer. But the truth is, I was just glad the field trip was over and I was off that big yellow bus.
The next day I spent  in Walnut Canyon.  The canyon, while beautiful and interesting, wasn’t much different than what I had seen in the desert the day before. This was a place where people lived in the cliffs, ya know…before they had home depot they had to use the materials found on the land…these cliffs were perfect. I walked into the canyon down the 1950’s concrete staircase with metal railings and was coming back up just as a bus load of elementary school kids were coming down. Perfect timing!
When I got to the top, they of course funneled me through their gift shop filled with fake bows and arrows and tacky stuffed animals. But there on the bottom shelf was a video, it was a video about the Hopi Indians. The front of the video case looked very institutional. The caption on the bottom read. “A rare and astonishing look into the lives of the Hopi Indians….like never seen before.” “Award Winning!” I flipped over the case and on the back was the price tag. $27! Twenty seven bucks?! That’s a lot of money for a classroom video! However, based on the conversation with the man in the desert the day before,  I was intrigued with the Hopi culture and bought the DVD.Â
I couldn’t wait to watch this video. I left the gift shop and found some shade under a tree and put the video in the player….and 20 minutes later…it was OVER?!?!? What I exclaimed aloud to myself! Twenty minutes?!?! That’s over $1 a minute! Then I slowed down for a minute. What did I just see? Let me watch it again. I watched that video 4 times.
The video was about a beautiful ancient culture that lived and still live in the North American desert. They have a corn seed that is passed down from their ancestors. This seed had been modified over generations to grow in the desert climate. They plant the seed in the sand and have ceremony praying to the rain Gods to water their seeds. When the rains come, they have ceremony in celebration. When the plants begin to grow, they have ceremony celebrating the growth. When the corn is ripe, they have a harvesting ceremony. Then as they placed the corn in deep hole in the earth while steaming and roasting the corn, they celebrate.  Days later they have ceremony extracting the corn from the earth. Some of the corn is ground by hand . The women sing in gratitude as they grind corn into cornmeal for future ceremony. The rest of the corn is used for food and seeds.  This has been the life of the Hopi Indians for thousands of years.
I began to understand how simple the human spirit is accustom to living, and yet how complicated we have made it in such a short period of time.  I have a deeper understanding for my morning depression before heading out into our complicated culture. I mean there hasn’t been 1000 years for the human spirit to embrace this way of living….heck…there hasn’t even been 100.Â
So, if I can be gentle with myself and remember that life is not my job, Facebook, Bankers, Lawyers, Penthouses or designer cars and shoes…..
Corn is life. Life is ceremony , ceremony is family and food. The rest of it…we just make up.
A big lesson….all for the low low price of $27.