Be as the Butterfly<\/p>\n
During the sacred Sun Dance, closed to the outside world,
\nthe Lakota people celebrate the union of the great green bowl of the earth
\nmeeting the great blue bowl of the sky, the Sun overhead,
\nand the union of the people in the unending Great Plains,
\nthe horizon line unbroken, unabridged, a perfect sphere
\nin their meeting bisected by the Sun Dance central pole,
\njust as we two-leggeds traverse the earth, upright and unafraid.<\/p>\n
Much may be learned in two-legged travels
\nfrom the animal companions surrounding and participating
\nin the journey. Their lessons must be learned
\nif a warrior may one day reach the horizon’s line
\nand step beyond to the spiritual plain.<\/p>\n
From Buffalo comes abundance, the meat to feed,
\nthe skins to clothe, the bones and sinews to create a home.
\nFrom Eagle comes power, tenacity, and healing,
\nthe opportunity to fly above worldly sorrows in the company of Great Spirit.
\nFrom Dog is learned loyalty and protection,
\nthe devotion to family and to personal truth.
\nFrom Rabbit comes the knowledge of fear and humility,
\nthe ability to move through adversity and travel on.
\nFrom Deer comes gentleness and compassion,
\nan embodiment of Great Spirit’s love for all.<\/p>\n
When one extraordinary warrior is connected to all
\nthat the animal spirits teach, has mastered all they embody,
\nhe will reach yet one more lesson, the Butterfly,
\nmost delicate in form but strongest of all.
\nButterfly transforms, transfigures entirely,
\nold cells traded for new to become a wondrous creature,
\na splendor to behold.
\nButterfly breaches the horizon line, flies beyond
\nand over the edge into the spirit unknown.<\/p>\n
Be as the Butterfly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Be as the Butterfly During the sacred Sun Dance, closed to the outside world, the Lakota people celebrate the union of the great green bowl of the earth meeting the great blue bowl of the sky, the Sun overhead, and the union of the people…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132197,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131940\/revisions\/132197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}