The Teacher and the Poet

4. Native American teaching story

This story sums up what we have to do:

What do you do when you're lost in the forest? Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you are not lost. Wherever you are is called "here" And you must treat is as a powerful stranger   Must ask permission to know it And be known. Listen! The forest breathes. It whispers, I have made this place around you. If you leave it, you may come back again Saying here, here   No two trees are the same to raven No two branches are the same to wren. If what a tree or a branch does is lost on you, Then you are surely lost.   Stand still. The forest knows where you are. You must let it find you.