Sometimes, without warning, a spiritual moment touches me so deeply that I cannot move and seem to be somewhere else in time. One evening in particular I will always remember for this special feeling that came over me. This happened to me around nine o'clock one evening as I sat out on my patio, taking my last time of reflections before turning in for the night.

There was a three-quarter moon and it was very bright. The winds were fierce and whispering, rushing through the pine trees. The whispers became louder and louder, until they sounded like voices. As the wind gained speed, the voices became so loud that I could hear nothing else. It was not cold, just comfortably cool as the winds seemed to be engulfing me and all Nature in it's arms. I looked up and began watching the moon.

Massive white cloud formations were drifting across the sky. Some of the clouds were wispy and playful with the moon, some were very dark and hid the moon for just a few seconds at a time. The wispy clouds were taking on shapes of recognizable forms, Kokopelli with his flute, a maiden with long, flowing hair, a bear running after something, a cougar pouncing, a buffalo charging and an eagle soaring. The winds were blowing the clouds so fast that it seemed as if Grandmother Moon was hurtling through generations of time, with all these symbolic shapes passing through history, telling a story. Were the voices in the pines trying to tell me something?

I gazed up at Grandmother Moon and the shapes for so long, watching this story unfold, that I felt myself drifting through time and knew nothing else for several minutes, maybe longer. I suddenly realized that tears were streaming down my cheeks and I was thinking about Black Elk, the Lakota Spiritual Leader. I thought of the time when he was old and made the journey up to Harney Peak, near his home, where he had been taken by spirits on his great vision when he was young. He stood there, in his old age, and talked and prayed to the Six Grandfathers.

With tears falling down his cheeks, he spoke to the Six Grandfathers and prayed to Great Spirit, ending his prayer with, "O make my people live!"

When I sat there, feeling the winds and the tears, hearing the voices and seeing Grandmother Moon's story, I felt so very connected to all the Native American peoples of the past and present. I knew at that moment why Black Elk cried. He wanted peace and hope and a future for his people. I had never felt so much a part of all Creation as I did at that moment.
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