The River

Feb 7 1997

This morning Edwin woke me up early, I got out of the tent and an awakening glorious looking ray of light hit my eyes, partly blinding me for a few seconds. Edwin started walking into the forest, the ground was still damp. I could feel the bits and pieces of little ground segments sticking to my feet. We walked for 10 minutes and finally Edwin told me to take my clothes off, then he went in a stream a few steps from were I was standing and laid in the water. I slowly slipped in the 


water. It was freezing. That changed me mentally, it changed me by making me reflect on what Edwin said about being invisible and I finally got it, you have to be in peace with yourself and the spirit bear would show up. Then after 20 minutes he got out and expected me to follow. I did. So we then got dressed and walked up to this slope, he told me about a rock and how that was his ancestor rock and got his anger to go away by rolling it down the slope in front of us, so he made me carry it up the slope and push it down, after that I didn't really see the point of that, but that really changed me physically, not only my muscles were acing from the building of the hut but also from the rolling of the stone up the hill. I then went back to camp and started building the hut. Later this night we had dinner, edwin then made a lecture on how we should make something special. And that changed me mentally, it changed the way that I thought about things, before they seemed like objects I owned and used, now they are something I own and use, but I also know that if I loose or break them my life will be hard on the island. So I will need to cherish and use carefully all the objects I have, I need to make them special