The Return of Life by Waynonaha Two Worlds
I walked in the deep woods today and looked for new plants and sweet, early mushrooms. The maples shed their cocoons and drop the yellow lacy skins to the ground. The floor of the woods is full of silent growing things. I feel the stillness as if something is being born again. The first moments of breath held before a cry of life is heard.
I sit down in wonder on an old mossy log and listen to soft insects flying and talking. Small shadows peek in and out of the ancient tree roots. The wee people whisper and laugh at this old woman sitting here. A gray squirrel digs frantically in the wet earth, looking for last winter’s nuts. He stops and looks at me as if to say, "Do you remember where I put that
nut?" I have no answer for him except to offer a piece of bread. He greedily grabs it and runs up the tree, never looking back.
Rich smells come from the damp earth and surround my place on the log. For a moment, a feeling of comfort, like one you have when you smell a pot of soup cooking, comes over me. Small plant heads break soil and see, for the first time, the sun and sky. Sleepy insects wake from their long winter’s nap. Butterflies slip in and out of the trees, seeking kindred spirits. Birds call in the still-bare branches as they find nesting spaces. 
The homecoming chatter between them like so many women reunited as they work to build their nests.
This is a homecoming, a reconnection of my body with the rich growing earth. The feeling spreads through my feet and travels up my winter-worn body. I feel my blood running through my body again as life returns.
Love, Waynonaha
Copyright © 2006 by Waynonaha Two Worlds
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