Elk Medicine

(picture taken within the city limits of Longview WA)

The dog and I are making deliveries in the dead of the afternoon. Sun beating down, urban stink, obnoxious traffic, driving through crime infested neighborhoods their former beauty freely decays.

The road becomes winding and narrow, the green of tree and bush returns, around and up we climb. I'm startled by a pickup barreling down the hill straight for me. We salute each other properly; gesture, grimace, growl .... and onward.

To my left are grazing elk: alert, strong, wild. I pull over and struggle with my pack to find my camera. I cut the engine. I'm in awe, the dog growls low and deep, the bull sizes us up. The best pictures are stored in my mind, the above pic came once I found my camera.

Elk Medicine teaches me that pacing myself will increase my stamina. If I have taken on too much recently, it's a good idea to take a look at how I plan to finish what I started without ending up burned out. Elk medicine also teaches me to seek and honor the company of my own gender. Within sisterhood I will find the strength and support to realign myself with the warrioress energy that I will need to go the distance.