The rushing call of Beaver Creek can be heard a mile 
away. It is early September after a heavy night of rain and the valley is shrouded in a gentle mist rising from the surface of rushing waters of the creek. The entire mesa feels different today as though everything changed during the humid night. When various sounds, sights, smells and all other sensations change so quickly it is as though the Great Creator wants us to become aware and prayerful. Some may think the river is just part of the landscape and although the unmistakable sound is truly remarkable, it is just another sound with no spiritual message. Others believe we are called from thoughts of the self and our immediate surroundings, to a higher level of spiritual awareness. So what is the river trying to say to us? Perhaps it speaks many languages to a variety of different people, according to their interpretation.
Red Jacket, who was a well known Seneca speaker during the formation of the Indian reservations in this country, once said this: “The Great Spirit will not punish us for what we do not know.” He was talking about the teachings of the European missionaries at a time when most American Indian people were just learning to speak English. Many serious misunderstandings and badly negotiated treaties came about as the result of a serious language barrier at that time in history. Today we are blessed with the availability of higher education, involvement with politics and the media, and many of these things are slowly being reconciled. Understanding one another can be a difficult journey at best. Also bringing reconciliation through negotiations can span generations and many people will pass on before recognizing the changes they hoped and dreamed for their children and future generations of native people. Still, the river sings and calls to us just as it always has throughout time. The song is the same to every nationality, Tribe and race.
We know that the river has the power to change the course of the land and that each drop combined with all the others can carve great change. The Grand Canyon was carved by the combining of some drops of water. Each drop contains it’s own story, it’s own history, but together they are a mighty force. We knew a young newcomer to recovery some years ago on the reservation. Once he was sober and his thinking began to heal, he decided to go visit his elder and try to return to his traditional Tribal ways. The language of his people was quickly disappearing. The elder told him to listen to the river and he would hear the songs of Creation in his language and the old ways would return to him. Many of us believe that the dances, songs and stories of our ancestors can be heard in the whisperings of the wind and the songs of the river.
However we learn to connect through the twelve steps, to a Power Greater than ourselves, we become healed. Just like Red Jacket said, we are not judged or condemned by a lack of formal training, a different language or knowledge of Creation. Good Orderly Direction (God) is free from the confines of organized religion or language. This spiritual fact sometimes brings us back to the religion or culture of our childhood with an entirely new perspective. We have the opportunity to understand with a enlightened heart, what we could never have achieved by our own will. Something truly divine has planted the understanding within us, that we have been healed by recovery, in ways quite supernatural. The sound of the fast-moving river this morning reminded me to pay attention to the Spirit of Creation within me, according to my own understanding. The song is one of peace and renewal.
