Was the name of a Wiccan I met <br />while living at the Grand Canyon. <br />She claimed to be seventy years old, <br />but looked at least one hundred. <br />She smoked Camel non-filters, <br />about two packs a day, <br />and she hiked Bright Angel trail <br />down to Phantom Ranch and back <br />once a week, without fail. <br />Her mother was Polish. <br />Her father was Seminole. <br />(America truly is a place <br />which defies the ordinary.) <br /> <br /> <br />What I recall most clearly <br />about Sun Woman are the words <br />she spoke at the El Tovar Lodge <br />to a young woman who had just <br />learned that her grandfather had passed away. <br /> <br /> <br />'Valerie, give your grandfather <br />laughter, not tears, ' she said with <br />a smile which neither the words 'gentle' <br />nor 'timeless' do justice to. <br /> <br /> <br />'Leaving our clay shells ends nothing. <br />It is merely the beginning of a great adventure, <br />a form of rebirth. Your grandfather is dreaming now. <br />Dreams more beautiful and kind and honest <br />than anything we could ever know on earth. <br />He now knows a joy, a wholeness, an ecstasy, <br />a completion which those whom he left behind <br />must wait for.'<br /><br />David Kowalczyk<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sun-woman/
