took; regardless of the cost to themselves or others. But only those who are chosen are the ones who will find it; to everyone else, it will just disappear.
“I will only give you clues on your birthdays to help you search for my journal and, if I die before the task is complete, I have given instructions to my best friend, Adam, to help you complete your life’s journey.
“Jacob, today you turn thirteen. From this day forward, you need to begin writing in your journal. You must write down the clues I will give you so that you may use them to find my journal about the cave. I will also tell you very important things to help you find your way on life’s wonderful journey.
“Here is your first clue:
‘There is a secret stairway leading down to the place where my journal resides and the only way to find it is by the directions that I, and I alone, will give to you.’
“Remember, Jacob, this is for you and you alone. You cannot tell anyone about my journal until the time is right, not your best friend, not even your mother can know about my journal.”
“Grandpa, how will I know when the time will be right?”
“As you listen to me over the next few years, I will teach you as much as I can and as you grow and mature to the young man I know you will be, you will know who you can trust and whom you can tell this great secret to by looking into their eyes. Jacob, the eyes are the window to a man’s heart and soul; they never lie. Those are the places where secrets live inside of us!
“I pray to GOD that you will listen to me and make me proud of the man that I know you will be. A man like your Dad, I was proud of him. He was a man’s man. He stood up for what he believed in and never backed down unless he found that he was in the wrong. At these times, he was man enough to say he was sorry and would apologize. I was proud of him and I’m proud of you. Jacob, you are very special to me. Every grandfather should be as fortunate as I am. You’re a smart young boy and I know you will do the things that are right. I have told you some things today that will help you find the cave. Only three men know where the cave is today. We have sworn an oath to one another to never go there alone or with anyone other than our immediate family after they have first gone through the training, we all agreed to. They would have to search for a journal that would then help them locate the cave. The journal could not be given to them. Remember, I will leave you clues in the things that I say and have written down for you to read in order to find my journal.”
On my fourteenth birthday, he told me: “The journal resides in a library that is very close to him and it took many years for this library to be built. The journal is with two books: one is a very spiritual book that most people have but don’t read and the other, most people had never heard about or even know of its existence.”
We took a lot of walks in the woods up and down Red River, talking about which side the moss grew on the trees, the rocks, and the different sounds the animals make in the woods. He taught me to turn around as I was walking through the woods and look behind me because that’s what I would be looking at when I came back through the woods. This way, it would look familiar to me and keep me from getting lost. At night, the woods appeared to be a whole new forest; the trees looked very different. You thought you were heading to the north when you were really heading to the east. It was easy to get turned around in the dark. Nothing looked familiar, not even remotely the same as it does in the daylight. “Make sure you look behind you in the dark just from time to time just like you do in the daylight, it helps you to stay on the right path,” he told me.
After Grandpa taught me how to find my way around the forest at night, he would take me out blindfolded. Then he would take off the blindfold and tell me to find my way back home.
When I thought I had it all figured out, he would surprise me by taking me up the river for thirty minutes. Then he would stop paddling the boat and let it drift back for a while. He would pull over to the bank, let me out and lead me through the woods, up and down the mountain, crisscrossing back and forth over every little creek that came out of that old mountain. Always, I was blindfolded when he took me out on most of our adventures.
One night, though, it was so foggy that he didn’t have to blindfold me. I didn’t know which way was up, let alone know how to find my way home. I didn’t know south from north or east from west. I couldn’t see the stars or the moon. I did well to see twenty feet in front of me. I couldn’t see any sign of light in any direction. It took me all night to find my way out of the forest. When I finally did come out, Grandpa was standing there waiting for me, even though it was three miles from the house.
He must have followed me all night, keeping a close watch on me; I never knew he was around or heard him make a sound. I’ve watched him walk up to a deer within twelve feet and the deer never knew he was there.
For my fifteenth birthday, he took me up the river again to a rock that he hadn’t shown me before. It had carvings and paintings with strange words all over it. When I asked him what it meant, he told me it was all in his journal and I would have to figure it out when the time came. Grandpa and I have a special bond between us – we have the same birthday. I have often wondered if that was just a coincidence or fate from GOD that we were both born near the end of the month of May.
Grandfather reminded me of last year and the library and then gave me a new clue.
“Jacob, in this library there are forty-eight warriors standing seven feet tall, all in a row, twelve warriors above facing the north are facing seven Angels from the south, twelve warriors below facing the east are facing seven Angels from the west, twelve warriors above facing the west are facing five Angels from the east and the twelve warriors below facing the south are facing nine Angels from the north. The seventh warrior above facing the west has a book in his hand. The seventh warrior tells you part of what you need to search for.”
We got back into the boat and headed back to the house. As we were rounding the bend in the river, a big black bear was standing on the side of the riverbank looking at us as if to say, “I have seen you. I know who you are, and I am watching you.” My Grandfather told me that all animals only allow you to see them when they are ready for you too, and not before. If you look back over the years when you have been with a friend, and you saw a deer or some other animal in the wild, and they didn’t see the animal, or the other way around, why didn’t both of you see it? Then there are times that you both see them. Your spirit must be one with nature and the things that GOD has given us to enjoy. We have a world we see all the time but then there is the spirit world that very few of us can see even for a brief moment of time. If people would just read the Bible, they could understand a lot more than we do. GOD talks about it several times about seeing into the spiritual world.
How do you explain knowing things that you shouldn’t know, or seeing things you don’t understand, or knowing about places you have never been?
Some Native Americans believe that you shapeshift in your sleep and travel to places you want to go or to teach you about another past. Shapeshifting is the act of your body transforming into something else, be it a deer, a wolf or even an eagle or some other animal that could teach you what you are looking for. You call upon the spirit of the animal you want to guide you but don’t stay in the spirit with them too long or you may take on some of their animal instincts. Have you ever dreamed you were flying? Just maybe you weren’t dreaming; maybe you shapeshifted while you were asleep. Were you tired when you woke up? Did your arms hurt when you woke up the next morning (sun a le i) and you didn’t know why? Those are things you must learn for yourself. Search in your spirit for the truth! That is what my Grandfather has always taught me.
We took many trips up and down Red River but that was the first time I had ever seen a bear at the water’s edge, watching us closely. We floated on by the bear
