We just spent a dream-like week in the UP of Michigan on our Ravenswood place. I had planned it as sort of a working vacation to catch up on some design projects but when we arrived I looked over Lake Superior and changed my mind. That is when I downloaded The Song of Hiawatha onto my iPad and spent much of the time reading and observing the beauty around me. I had read Tales of the Ojibwa and I seem to remember that Hiawatha was not exactly tribally accurate but I felt that it did catch the spirit of the Indian lore. There is just something so unchanged about the UP - I guess it is just not popular enough to have been ruined by civilization. I really hope it stays that way, land of big-sky water.
I had read about totems and often talked about them with my friend, Jen Bunker. I knew, of course, that my main totem animal is a frog and then perhaps horse. When I was up there it came to me clear as a bell: frog, raven, fox and horse. All it took was quiet time away from the crush of people, when I could clear my mind.
By the shores of GitcheeGoomee,
by the shining big-sky water,
stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
daughter of the moon, Nokomis.
--Longfellow
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