The Star Maiden

As my luck would have it I have been afforded endless amounts of time this weekend for reflection and empty musings. I sat by the pond and watched the water lilies slowly closing as night approached.

My water lilies remind me of the Native American story The Star Maiden.

The story goes like this....At night the star maiden would look down at the beautiful people she would see living in such a beautiful world. She appeared to a young brave in a dream and said,

"I am tired of wandering across the sky...your world calls to me."

When the brave awoke he told the chief and the council of his dream. The chief told the people that a star wanted to live on earth and they rejoiced in her coming. They threw sweet wood on the fire, raised their arms in welcome and danced to celebrate the coming of the star.

In order to live with the people she most loved she was forced to choose a different form for a shining star must remain forever in the heavens. When morning came she slipped into a rose that grew strongly on the hillside and she was certain this would be her new home.

Alas, the next day she realized she was still too far from the village and the people she so loved. So she left the rose and floated down to the tall graceful prairie grass. Flowers of every color grew there and she chose the bluest most beautiful flower certain that this was her new home.

But soon the earth began to shake beneath her as herds of wild buffalo trampled through the prairie. She knew she could never rest there in that beautiful prairie. And that night she rose back up into the dark sky above the heads of the people she loved.

The people were sad. They were afraid they had lost her forever. That the earth she so dearly loved didn't welcome her.

She shone brightly in the sky and drifted slowly over a dark water lake. She hung there entranced at her reflection and with joy she saw the reflection of her sisters shining there as well.

"Sisters! Stop your wandering! Find rest with me in these quiet peaceful waters. Come!"

The people of the village saw the sky tremble with diamond shards of bright light. The dark waters came alive with stars.

In the morning the people gathered at the lake which had been full of stars the night before. They stood in silence at the beauty floating before them. Hundreds of water lilies floating quietly in the sun.

Water lilies are the stars that fell from the sky one night a long, long time ago. When the star maiden was seeking the world she most loved and had beckoned her sisters to follow.

This story never speaks about sacrifice. Although I have always thought it would have been a big one to give up shining brightly against a black velvet curtain...watching over the earth all night as the world rested. I suppose the star maiden knew her heart well enough to understand that leaving her home for the dark waters where she finally saw her reflection was simply the only thing she could do. She knew in her heart where she belonged. She lived true to herself. She was strong. She was brave. Perhaps the real sacrifice would have been if she had never dared to to leave her black velvet curtain.