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((The story Kaeev told at the storytelling tonight. Enjoy!))
This is a story told to me by my mother, when I was very young.
One day long ago, when she was just a little girl, she was on a hunt with her mother in the Barrens. As they hunted, they came across a dry riverbed. Mother noticed that many of the rocks in the riverbed were rounded and smooth, while others nearby were more pointed and jagged. Ever curious, my mother asked my grandmother why this was so.
My grandmother answered with this story.
Grandmother picked up one of the smooth, round stones that rested at the bottom of the riverbed. “These stones,” she began, “they speak to each other, you know, even as I speak to you now. They have spirits, even as you and I do.
Long ago, even before I was born, they once rested atop a great mountain. On this great mountain, a stone like these” -- She then pointed to the more coarse and sharp stones -- “overlooked the land with the mountain and thought of how beautiful it all looked from up there.
The stone and the mountain would watch as An’she and Mu’sha rose behind them and set before them, illuminating the land countless days and nights.
But, as time went on, the stone began to yearn to see this land. It wanted to be on and about the land, not just watching it from their grand view. ‘Mountain,’ it said one day, ‘this is a beautiful land, but I tire of sitting here simply watching it. I want to be able to see it below.’
The mountain, puzzled by this declaration, said, ‘Why, child? Do you not like being up this high where we can touch the sun and moon each day?’
‘Oh yes, yes I do,’ assured the stone. ‘The earth is glorious and beautiful from up here..but I wish I could touch it too.’
The mountain thought on this for some time. ‘Someday,’ she answered, ‘you will have the chance.’
The stone was overyjoyed at these words. But the mountain quickly cautioned, ‘But, when that time comes, remember me and the days when you enjoyed the earth and sky with me.’
‘Of course I will,’ said the stone, finding it hard to imagine how he would not recall these days.
True to the mountain’s word, that day did come. A great storm swept through the land, and its torrential rains came upon that great mountain.The stone was filled with excitement and eager anticipation as it began to move with the waters that rushed down the mountainside.
..But soon, the stone began to descend rather quickly, and the excitement quickly changed into terror as it rolled down with reckless speed and no control over its course. Terror became mixed with pain and agony as the stone’s sharp edges chipped and cracked as it struck other rocks on its way down.
Soon, the stone found itself at the mountain’s base in a fast-moving stream, tumbling about on the bottom as the current tossed it every which way, away from the mountain.
This surely was not the grand meeting with the land the stone had hoped for.
Eventually, as the storm passed, so did the current slow, and the stone came to rest on the riverbed.
The riverbed would become dry from time to time. But as more time passed, more storms passed also, and many a time the stone found itself tossed and turned with the flood, the mountain getting further and further away until the stone could not see her anymore.
The stone became sad. Its memories were filled with nothing but the turmoil that brought it to the bottom of this riverbed.
‘This is terrible,’ said the stone to itself with dismay. ‘I am alone here. I am so often emcompassed about by the surging waters, and they throw me all over the river bed. And, even when they do not do this, An’she and Mu’sha feel so far away down here.’
The stone then heard a voice, one that it had almost forgotten entirely. ‘They don’t have to feel that way.’
‘Mountain!’ exclaimed the stone. ‘Where are you? I can’t see you.’
The memories the stone had of those bygone days with the mountain came back like the very flood that carried it away. But the stone only felt sadness with them, wishing they were real.
The mountain’s reply was delayed, but spoke with comfort in her voice. ‘I can see you.’
‘Though you have been taken far away,’ she said, ‘you are not gone from me.’
‘Why did you wait all this time to speak to me again?’ said the stone sadly.
‘I didn’t,’ answered the mountain. ‘I’ve been calling to you always. You just needed to listen.’
With that statement, the stone began to remember how the mountain had cautioned it before it departed with the storm. As it thought on this, it came to realize that it was not so much the view from the mountain that it longed for, but rather its companionship with the mountain and the heavens.
It could be happy, even here. Even in the midst of turbulent waters.
With these thoughts, the stone discovered something else: its appearance had changed.
No longer did it have rough and sharp edges that could cut or pierce. It had become round and smooth. It marveled at this change.
‘You are beautiful now,’ said the mountain with warmth in her voice. ‘And I knew that what you’ve experienced was the only way you could become this way. As you strive to listen and remember the days you were with me--even as the flood carries you--neither I nor the heavens will feel far away.’”
My grandmother then concluded with this profound lesson.
“You and I--all of us--are not very different from this stone. We once were in higher places ourselves, now come down to this beautiful world. And though we are not with Her, Por Ah speaks to each of us. And we can hear Her, if we listen. And as we listen, and look to her--even as the current of life moves strong, tossing and turning us--we can become even as these stones in Her hands.
...Polished, and smooth.”
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