A LESSON IN HEALING
By Blue Turtle
An old man died two weeks ago, just two days short of his 90th birthday. It wasn’t an Earth shaking event, for few knew him, but I shall ever be grateful for having met and known him for a little while. I will not mention his name out of respect, but for the sake of this message I’ll call him Charley.
As those who have known me know, last year was pretty traumatic. Not only was I suffering from this lung cancer but underwent a heart by-pass. I was confined to my bed on oxygen and feeling pretty much like giving up. Then Charley showed up. He had read some my wisdom stories and had traveled to Pa. to meet me. What a character he was. He may have stood about 5ft-9 at one time, but he was so bent over from rheumatism that he appeared only 5 ft. His long white hair was almost as long as he was tall. At 89 years old, his dark face was so wrinkled that he looked like a walking prune and his demeanor was so caustic that at first I didn’t know what to make of him. But then he smiled… If anyone has enjoyed the first burst of sunshine bursting forth from storm clouds, then you have some idea of old Charles’s smile. It lit up his eyes and face just like that Sun, completely changing his whole appearance.
I won’t go into all that we talked about except to say that he really reamed me out about feeling sorry for myself and told me that I had too much to give to allow myself the luxury of giving up. Then he offered to take me to his place in West Virginia for a “Little Healing Trip.” Up in the mountains.
Anyway, we made plans and I got together all the things I thought that I needed to camp out. Tent, sleeping bag, medicines, and all kinds of stuff. When the day came for him to pick me up, he took one look at all that stuff and shook his head. Then told me to bring one heavy blanket, one 9x12 plastic ground cloth, a change of clothes, my medicine bag and pipe, that’s all, no medicines, not even aspirins. When I asked about my oxygen, he only growled something about never learning to breath again as long as I used that crutch.
Then we made that long six-hour trip to West Virginia, up along roads that seemed no more than deer paths where in some places I was afraid to look out the windows because it was straight down. How that old pickup of his ever made it was a miracle of its own. But finally we arrived at his little tucked away trailer at the foot of what he called a hill, but I could of sworn was a mountain. After resting up for the night we set out in the morning. Old Charley outfitted me with an old army belt with a world war two canteen, and we set out. Now I had not walked much further than back and forth to the bathroom for most of a year and the very thought of even walking to the foot of that hill had me panting for breath, but old Charley, stove up as he was with arthritis and all just kept chugging along and I felt too ashamed to lag behind. When we got to the base of the “hill” I really felt relieved, but then old Charley pointed up and said, “Only about five flats up there is where were going.” I looked up where he was pointing and was ready to turn around and go home. But old Charley just started climbing and I just could not let him down.
Now I’ll tell you right now, neither Charley nor I broke any speed record. We were both plumb tuckered when we reached the first flat up. My breathing was so bad that I thought for sure that I would pass out, and Charley didn’t sound much better, that first climb up was only about sixty yards but it might of well have been sixty miles for my shaking legs. As we stood there gasping for breath, Charley dug into his medicine bag and brought out a pouch of dried herbs, telling me to take a mouth full like a quid of tobacco. So, gullible as I am, I did. Now I can’t tell you all the roots that were in it, but there was yellow root (golden seal) and willow bark for a couple, and it was so bitter and strong that I immediately started to gasp and cough, it was so strong that each breath I took filled my lungs with its fumes, but amazingly after a few minutes I was breathing stronger than ever.
Needless to say, even with those herbs, it still took us nearly five hours to go up that hill to where Charley wanted to camp. No words can express the beauty of that place. There was a beautiful spring and pond in a small meadow completely surrounded by massive trees of every kind, and the view was breathtaking.
The first thing we did was to erect a small wigwam of saplings covered by one of our ground cloths, then made a fire and boiled some herbal tea which Charley had brought with him and ate some of his home made jerky. This jerky was what he called our emergency rations, and such they were, for in the rest of our stay of three weeks up there, (Except for the trips up by his daughter), we lived off the land.
Now I have been living in and around the woods most of my life and thought that I knew something about herbs and living off the land, but next to Charley, I was nothing more than a rank novice. He knew every edible plant, mushroom and insect on that mountain. Thinking back, I cannot believe some of things we ate, greens and roots of more types than I could ever remember, grubs, ants, wild honey (including larva), mushrooms of every type, among the few things. Everything went into that old canteen cup he used for a pot. Thank God his Daughter Molly took pity on us and brought up food every other day or so.
Now Molly was as much of a character as Charley. She is about my age, stands about 6ft-2 and weighs about as much as Charley and I put together, very little of it fat. She is every bit as taciturn as Charley and strong as an ox. She lives in he nearest town and runs a little shop selling what she calls herbs and gee jaws. Molly say’s she was married once, but it didn’t take, and that if a man couldn’t work harder than her then he wasn’t worth living with. Molly always came up every other day to check up on Charley and bring his mail and such, as well a splitting his wood and making sure he had a good meal or two.
It was always a source of amazement watching Molly walk up that mountain. She could climb up the five flats in less than twenty minutes and not even be breathing hard when she got there. She was a welcome sight, for she always brought a pack full of food that she cooked for us. When she wasn’t cooking, she was out looking for herbs, yellow root, and bloodroot among the many.
In the evening she would help us set up a sweat lodge and would fire tend for us, handling those hot stones like a real pro. She completely ignored the fact that we were naked and always had towels and blankets ready for us afterwards.
To make a long story short, it was an amazing three weeks spent on that mountain. Just getting back in the habit of morning and nighttime praying was worth the effort. I spent an additional two weeks at Charley's cabin and came away feeling like an entirely new man. I came away feeling that I was completely healed, not physically of course, but spiritually. I don't take oxygen or any medications any more, and drink herbal tea, which Molly keeps me well supplied with. My life has changed in ways that are hard to describe.
Molly called me when Charley passed on. She said he had passed peacefully in his sleep. Knowing Charley, it was the only way he would go, for he would have fought it had he been awake, and won.
There were very few of us at Charley's funeral. Charley left me one final gift which I keep here on my computer. It is a round stone about the size of a baseball, pecked and polished perfectly round of hard green stone. It's meaning remains perfectly clear to me today as it was when Charley first explained it to me. But then that is another story. I can only hope that all who read this may find their life's circle as complete and find a friend like Charley in their life.
I myself find myself extremely grateful to have known such a wonderful soul, and I know with certainty that he left this life fullfilled.
May peace love and harmony fill your lives.
Blue Turtle
