Looking back, I understand that I was given several warnings that my life was going to change in every way.
In a series of dreams that lasted over a one year, I remembered being a young Native American woman mated to a warrior for the tribe. I had flashbacks of being in the mountains in the southern USA, standing on a cliff overlooking more woods and hills, saying farewell to him.
In other dreams I heard a voice telling me that my name is Timid Thunder. Sometimes I remembered climbing up the side of a steep hill grabbing rocks with my bare hands, trying to escape from something.
Whoever she was, I knew her well. That mixture of being stubbornly fierce and simultaneously afraid or anxious about something is my normal state of being,
When I shared these dreams with some friends, I admitted feeling connected to Timid Thunder. I am her, I said.
My friends disagreed. They claimed I am a happier Thunder, and that is how Dancing Thunder came into being.
It was my online name and used so often even my mother began calling me Dancing Thunder or “DT”.
Those dreams foretold the next dozen years, where I made choices that changed my life.
Another name formed when I became a grandmother. Loving Willow trees, I chose Grama Willow for my name as an elder. My grand daughter’s middle name is Aspen. Our roots are connected.
I’m fortunate to live among Dancing Timber, with singing trickling streams and swaying trees bending to embrace me when I need comfort. Sometimes they drop a branch as an offering for a new macrame project.
I am blessed.
