I Look Around
Jennifer Anaquod
I look around and realize I am back where I started, as I am sitting on a rock in the forest with the moonlight shining down on me. Beginning, middle or end I am not sure, but what I do know is that I have a better understanding of the importance of visiting Coyote. I have brought a small gift to show my appreciation for Coyote for always embracing the 4 R’s with me and being patient while I work my way through challenging concepts and learn new stories. I sense Coyote before I see him and smile, as he always brings me a sense of peace, even though confusion often accompanies the peace.
“It took you long enough,” Coyote says and plops down beside me.
“Is this the end or the beginning,” I ask as he sits beside me.
“Oh my girl… you still don’t get it. It just is. The thing about cyclical understanding is it can be the beginning, middle or end all at the same time, or it could be none of those,” Coyote pats my hand. “Whether it is here or there or there or here, we carry our worldview in our hearts and in the stories we have known since well since before forever… It doesn’t matter how you get there or where there is; as long as there is story there will be”.
“Will be?” I ask. He nods, and we sit in silence, and I know that my journey with Coyote is far from over, just as I know the beginning, middle and end come in no particular order.
Discussion Questions
- How do your own stories pass down through your family influence your own worldview(s)?
- Explore the concept of interconnectedness? How do the experiences of others around us (both historically and currently) change how a worldview is formed?
- Discuss the difference between cyclical learning and linear learning.
- What is Coyote’s role in the author’s journey of understanding her own worldview?
- How can you be connected to a place or way of knowing if you have never been to that place?
