The Journey Home

I'm a Chinook Salmon
you are beside my highway
I passed Menucha this morning.

I'm the BIG Fish
Indians called me “the swimmer”
we are powerful swimmers.

I'm on my journey home
my spiritual journey home.

In my life I have come to understand and appreciate those that came before me. Their bodies and those of my parents enriched the water from where I grew.

As a child and youngster I swam down stream to the salt water where I have lived and grown for the last five years.

I have begun my journey home now
Am I afraid? YES !!

I am following the spirit
It is pulling me
In spite of my fears.

I am swimming up stream
I have given up food
My hunger is for the spirit and home

Each day the pull of the spirit is stronger
And I yield to it.

I passed Menucha this morning.

You humans with your Dams, electricity and science cannot explain how we find our way home.

Some of us travel over one thousand miles.

I admit there are times of fear and I wonder ifI have the strength to make it home.
Will I know home when I get there?

I AM INSPIRED BY THOSE PICTURES OF MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS FLYING IN THE AIR, AGAINST THE CURRENT, MAKING THEIR WAY HOME!!

Then my doubts and fears are forgotten.

At those times I can accept my fears and remember my parents, their parents before them and before them . . .

And of this community in which I travel, this too carries me.

But even MORE, it gives me Faith
the Faith that I can make it HOME.

I have had many guides for this journey though no one can tell me exactly how to get home.

My faith is that each of us has all we need to make it home.

I have no doubt that it will take all of my senses.

I passed Menucha this morning.

This spiritual journey will take me home.

I wonder if humans journey home like the Chinook?

If they do it must surely be up stream.
Are they pulled as I am fighting fears?
Can they gain strength from one another?
Do they need faith that they can find home?

I don't know.

I passed Menucha this morning.