An ode to a guide

I have ridden the waves with the orcas

I have climbed the mountains of the bald eagle.

I have slept in the forest of the grizzly

and fished the icy rivers of the king salmon.

They are all my people.

I have walked the Earth beneath the great sun

and wondered at the sky at night,

a million stars shining down upon me.

I have breathed in the air of the Great Spirit,

And now it is time to return.

The dirt is my home.

I shall return to that earthen soil from

which I came.

My ashes spread across this land to feed

generations that follow.

I will go slowly back to the Spirit who sent me

and report on how you all are doing.

For you are my people, as well.

I have lived among you.

For that I am grateful.

I shall leave you now.

I am returning to my rightful place in the universe.

I learned today that my good friend and Nootka fishing guide Chief Richard Raincloud of Vancouver Island, British Columbia has died and been cremated.  (If you read my book The House Next Door, he is captured in the character of Robin Raintree.) He was as fine a man as I have ever met.  And he was truly the best fishing guide ever to lead me through the wilderness.

He showed me to the understanding of the Great Balance. We are on a journey along the Great Way – it is less about the destination and more about the journey, he taught.

He will be missed.  A man of peace and a man of great knowledge. He dispensed his wisdom in quiet sentences at the edge of campfires along the Pacific Northwest.  I swear he could talk to the steelhead trout as if they were his cousins.

I will miss him.