Wagamese -- Butterfly teachings

Ayer por la noche estaba leyendo un libro de un autor Ojibway (una de las tribus nativas de América del Norte) cuando me topé con esa pequeña historia. El libro es algo así como una compilación de momentos personales, a ratos lecciones de vida: se titula "A Native Life" y el autor es Richard Wagamese. Hace tiempo que no copio una parrafada en el blog, pero Inara está a punto de dar sus primeros pasos y es una historia tan, tan bonita que no podido evitarlo :)

It was the butterflies, my people say, who brought the first human babies to their feet. Before that, the New Ones sat in innocence beneath a tree, watching the world around them in wonder. But Creator had planned more for them. Their destiny called for them to move throughout the world. These human babies were meant to walk upon their two legs, and as long as they sat under that tree their destiny could not be fulfilled.

So the Animal People came.

The weasels came to dart and dance around them. The babies just clapped their hands and laughed. Then the fox came, and in her wily way tried to cajole the babies into following her. But the human babies merely hooted in glee. The crows came, and hopped and danced about in hopes that the New Ones would stand and join them. But they never moved.

Creature after creature arrived. Each one tried to entice the New Creations from their seat beneath that tree, and each one came up short. There was a seemingly endless parade of Animal People, and the human babies marveled at all of them. But they wouldn't stand and walk.

Then, across the meadow, a brilliant cloud appeared. In the sunlight its colors danced and dipped and shone wildly. The New Ones watched this living rainbow approach, and they grew excited. The cloud seemed to float in all directions at once, and when it came near them, the New Ones laughed like never before.

That cloud of butterflies drifted under the branches of the tree where the human babies were sitting. They fluttered among the leaves, dropping lower and lower until they were only inches from the New Ones' heads. They hovered there. The human babies reached out there arms to catch them. But the butterflies inched a little higher.

The air seemed to tremble with butterflies. The human babies were entranced. Each time they tried to snare a handful of color, the cloud drifted away. They stretched their arms higher. They thrust out their hands. But it was to no avail. When the butterflies danced just out of reach a final time, the New Ones lurched to their feet and raced after them across the meadow.

The Animal People celebrated quietly, then returned to their dens and burrows and nests. The Human Babies never caught those butterflies, but they kept on running, right into the face of their destiny. Sometimes you can still hear them laughing in the sunshine.