What Is Your Quest?

Do you have a quest? I thought I did but, something was missing. In the mid-80’s I left my job in Kentucky and moved to California. A lot of people around here thought California was where the”crazies” lived. In order to get a job there I had to send my college transcript, be finger printed and take some test. While all this was being processed I worked at a childcare center.

I have always loved nature and the Native American ways. For several years I wanted to do a vision quest. In the dictionary it describes vision as the special sense by which the qualities of an object (such as color, luminosity, shape and size) constituting its appearance are perceived through a process in which light rays entering the eye are transformed by the retina into electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. Quest is defined as an investigation or the act of seeking. A vision quest is a solitary vigil by an adolescent American Indian boy to seek spiritual power and learn through a vision the identity of his animal or bird guardian spirit.

I found a person qualified to lead me on this quest. I experienced things I had never experienced before. It was a six month process to ready myself. I fasted, gathered and made items I would take with me , dig a hole and spend the night in it on the side of a mountain.

The last thing I had to do was take the items I needed, go up on the mountain again and find a place level enough to spend three days and nights. I found rocks and formed a circle. I could not leave that circle until I was ready to descend. I had no food or water with me. It was truly a life changing experience for me. I gained a lot of insight about myself.

On the afternoon of the third day I saw my guardian spirit.

He lit in the top of a dead tree to preen himself. A feather caught the wind and blew upward. A blanket of warmth spread all over my body and I realized my spirit name. When I came down from the mountain I had a new quest. I have been living that journey ever since.

Has the pandemic given you quest? It has changed the way we are doing things. Maybe we were not paying attention to the right things. Think about it. What is your quest?