A Story for You ~ part 2
A Story for You is a gentle storytelling series following the animistic life of a Bean Feasa and her experiences of walking through realms both mythic and mundane.
As she was pulling, stretching, and rolling tea tanned salmon skin between her fingers, her thoughts drifted back to the morning’s frith. She let them mull in her mind like loose tea swirling in warm currents of her cup.
Two cedar trees. Standing close together.
Cedar. A long time medicinal ally. Healing. Providing. Sheltering. The necessities in life.
She picked up a sea lion bone to help with the softening process. Holding the skin taut and pulling it back and forth over its edge.
Back and forth….back and forth… back and forth…
Cedar. Two standing close together, like friends, or family, or lovers.
She began oiling the fish leather with bear grease and thought to harvest some cedar for another tea once the sun sets. Her hands were getting tired but she kept rubbing the grease in, stretching, pulling, rubbing, paying attention to the edges particularly.
She could feel the presence of those cedar trees. Near her front door like benevolent guardians or caretakers. A presence she was grateful for, for it had been a long, solitary Winter.
Perhaps a remedy is at hand.
In that moment a raven flew low overhead and she considered it as promising.
There. The salmon skin was now a beautiful soft leather with ridges the shape of diamonds where the scales once were. She folded it carefully into her basket and rubbed the remaining bear grease into her aching hands.
On her way back inside the cottage, she paused to put her hands on the rugged bark of one of the cedar trees. Then she touched her forehead to its trunk.
Breathing slowly and letting her senses feel its strong rooted and steadfast energy of this Being so much older and so much slower than she. In her mind’s eye, she saw herself harvest just a few bough tips, and place them into her cauldron full of water…becoming a rich golden colour under a slow boil on the wood stove. “Medicine”, she thought as she pictured herself sipping and filling with vitality and a sense of companionship.
Tucked up in her cottage on the west coast of Canada, Juliette Jarvis lives as a Sacred Living Mentor, Best Selling Author, and Devotional Artist. She draws on 15+ years of hosting community ceremonies and immersion programs to write spiritually supportive works, and create hand woven ritual wear & ceremonial ceramics.
Visit www.selkiesanctuary.com to find more of her works and buy her a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/juliettejarvis
