Page 157 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015
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Dark Matter: Women Witnessing - December, 2015 Issue #3 - EXTINCTION / DEVOTION
he rises to the tips of his walking legs, dancing and waving his claws. She submits. He sidles up
and embraces her tenderly from behind. In a cage made by his walking legs, she sheds her
shell, becoming utterly defenseless and ripe for mating. Jimmy cradles and protects her, gently
turning her to face him for the act. Their lovemaking lasts from five to twelve hours. Afterwards,
they remain locked in a two-day embrace while her shell hardens.
I live near a stream called Western Run that feeds into a larger stream called the Jones Falls
that flows into one of the Chesapeake’s rivers, called by the original people the Patapsco. I
imagine the Bay offering this suggestion of a Water Walk to every heart living in the 64,000
square miles of her watershed. As I research the idea, it helps to see that I am not the first one
who has said yes. Still, I have no idea what will be required of me.
In the Creator’s Original Instructions, women were to be the caretakers of the living water. When
the big ships arrived in North America with men who did not know these instructions, many
traditions were suppressed and forgotten. Some of the original people still follow the instructions
and the prophecies of the Grand Chiefs, women like Grandmother Josephine Mandamin. She
was born an Anishinaabe far to the north in a land carved by glaciers, and grew up on an island,
living the same way as the Chesapeake’s first people—in kinship with the water, the fish, the
birds, the sun and moon, and the seasons.
In answer to the cry for help from her watery home, which her people in their language called
The Big Boss Lake, Grandmother Josephine took up her copper pail in 2003 and started to
walk. She walked with her open heart along the awakening springtime shoreline, circling the
entire lake to bless the water, to listen to and speak with the water spirits, to sing prayers of
healing, and to perform ceremony by offering tobacco and thanksgiving. She walked to restore
right relationship with the water and for the benefit of the next generations.
! ! &!
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