Too Specialized

Meredith began to think back over her life and work, realizing that she had become too specialized and narrow in focus, losing sight of her youthful ideals. And she remembered how her father had taught her to seek the answers within. So she looked for a quiet place where she could sit silently and meditate.

Eerie Warning

Meredith rested on the rung of a ladder which stood against a cave dwelling and looked around her.

Nearby, a tall boulder stood straight up, like a sentinel, an eerie warning from the past. Further on, she found a shorter stone pillar, low enough to sit on.  She perched on it, facing the valley below. 

Something Familiar

From her view high up on the hillside, Meredith could see the entire ruins of the village below. In the center plaza, three roofless kivas gaped wide open to the sunlight. Light was everywhere, dazzling her with its radiance.  

She slipped into a reverie, her mind lazily drifting around the topic of her book.

Her reverie was interrupted by a figure passing by, a young woman hiking along the trail, who smiled and waved, but continued on her way without intruding on Meredith's meditation. There seemed to be something familiar about her though Meredith could not place her. What was it?

Young Hiker

Ten years ago when Meredith had been scouring the ruins in search of her lost parents, she had had a strange experience, which came to her mind now.  As she climbed up the hillside toward the spot where the landslide had occurred, she had noticed a blonde haired woman, much like herself only perhaps ten years older. The woman had been sitting on a stone pillar wrapped in thought. Young Meredith had smiled and moved on.   

Flash of Light

Hours later as she was returning down the hill, she had seen an intense flash of light, and heard a sound like a thunderclap. She halted and watched spellbound as the same woman, dressed in a flowing white robe, floated to earth and lay motionless on the ground.  Meredith had rushed to her side and helped her to her feet. Then she picked up a bundle wrapped in white deerskin, which the woman had dropped.

When she asked the woman what had happened, her only answer was, "Now I have seen who I really am!"
Meredith, puzzled by her cryptic answer, had nevertheless helped the woman down the trail past the ruins, to the Visitor's Center, which was now closed.

"Are you sure you are are all right?" she asked.

"Please let me drive you home." But the woman had insisted that she was not hurt and refused further help.

Bundle

"Well, here is your bundle," Meredith had said.

"Thank you, but, you see, it is for you," said the woman.

"But why?" said Meredith in confusion, "you do not know me."

"One day you will learn the reason why, and you will learn too, who you are, as I have done."

"But who are you?" Meredith had asked.

"You will know that in time."

Roared Away

Meredith had been too overcome with astonishment to speak. Her orderly scientific mind told her that the woman must be crazy. Her mythic and intuitive mind said that she should believe.

As Meredith stood rooted to the ground by her amazement and confusion, the older woman jumped into her jeep, pulled out of the parking lot and roared away up the drive. 

"Wait, your bundle!" Meredith had finally called, coming to her senses, but it was too late. The woman was gone.  

Full of curiosity, Meredith had unwrapped the bundle and found a beautifully carved bone pipe decorated with colorful fur and feathers, and in a white beaded pouch, she discovered a bundle of pungent ground leaves.  

Holder of the Pipe

Since that day, Meredith had kept the pipe with her everywhere she traveled, hoping someday to meet the unknown woman in white and return it to her.

When she was feeling particularly lonely or discouraged, and grief for her lost parents swelled in her breast, she would smoke a pinch of the sacred herb in the pipe and feel strangely comforted.

On special occasions she shared her pipe with close friends or colleagues. They reported the same sense of well-being after smoking it.