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In the tale, Return of the Flowers, elders find a way to restore life to the barren earth. In the stories: Creating a World, Waters; Windows, and Books; and New Life; after a disaster, new beginnings may be possible.
Creating a World Waters, Windows, and Books New Life Return of the Flowers (Aboriginal/Australia)
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 As a child, I didn’t have any friends. I was variously labeled—too sensitive, too serious, too intense, a goody goody—so I developed ways to play by myself. I liked being outdoors: roller skating, riding my bike, walking to a large park less than a mile from my house. Sometimes, the kids on my block played games and let me play with them because they needed people. During bad weather I created play from my imagination.
 My house is an equilateral triangle. No rooms have four walls or right angles. My study has five walls, four of which have 10 floor-to-ceiling bookcases, all filled with books: world tales, fiction, non-fiction, essays, poetry, spiritual explorations, and healing. I also have material from former students, copies of books, novels, and papers I’ve written, as well as journals and lots of children’s’ literature.
 When I first moved to my house in Santa Fe there was hardly any landscaping. The area behind the garage had been used as a dumping ground, with an ugly shed barely attached to a wall. It took a while to clean up the mess, get rid of the shed, and remediate the soil. Having no idea about what or how to plant in a landscape so different from the east coast, I hired a man who sold produce at the Farmers Market to help me decide what to do with the space now that it was cleared of debris.
 When the creator Baiame no longer walked the earth, the flowers and trees all died except for three trees that he marked as his own. Only here could bees make honey. Only here could parents show their children how the earth used to look when flowers and trees graced the earth. They longed to taste the honey yet dared not. After seeing their longing, the All-seeing spirit told Baiame how people appreciated his trees, yearning to taste the honey. As a reward for their respect, Baiame sent them goonbeams and manna though the drought continued. The earth remained bare. The children were delighted with the new found food but the older people mourned the absence of life as it had been. One day, a group of elders decided to journey to Baiame to plead with him to restore the earth, to return the flowers and trees. Just before dawn, they traveled to the foot of the great mountain, searching for the path of stone steps, cut by the spirit of Baiame. They climbed for four days and four nights, unwilling to rest before reaching the summit. At the top, too exhausted to go any further, they drank from a spring of fresh water that quenched their thirst and revived their spirits. In the distance, they saw stones piled in the shape of a circle. No longer tired, they made their way to the center of the circle. Here they heard the voice of Baiame’s spirit messenger who asked why they had come. They told the spirit how all but the three trees of Baiame died when he no longer walked the earth, how the bees disappeared. They asked how the flowers and trees and bees could be restored, the earth fragrant and fertile. The spirit messenger told the attendant spirits to lift the elders to the place of Baiame, where flowers and trees bloomed eternally. Through their tears, the elders gasped with awe at the sight of so much beauty. They listened carefully as Baiame told them how to return fertility to the earth. Following his teachings, the elders gathered as many different trees and flowers as they could hold. The spirits then carried the elders down into the stone circle where they learned how to cradle the tiny plants and carry them to safety. The people of the earth welcomed the elders, looking with awe and astonishment at the brilliant colors, smelling the sweet fragrances, welcoming the bees gathering nectar. Once more trees and flowers graced the earth filling the hearts of the people with hope and joy. As the spirits foretold, there are still times of drought, when the goonbeams and manna take the place of honey, but the trees and flowers thrive, sheltering the bees who return with the new rains. |
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Nancy King is a widely published author and a professor emerita at the University of Delaware, where she has taught theater, drama, playwriting, creative writing, and multidisciplinary studies with an emphasis on world literature. She has published seven previous works of nonfiction and five novels. Her new memoir, Breaking the Silence, explores the power of stories in healing from trauma and abuse. Her career has emphasized the use of her own experience in being silenced to encourage students to find their voices and to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences with authenticity, as a way to add meaning to their lives.
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