mouth and relax.
“Then take the pipe and take two short puffs, holding the smoke in your mouth for as long as possible, then blow it out of your mouth slowly. This is only done when you are becoming one with all things. This is not smoked for fun. Besides, you know I don’t believe in smoking. This is the only time you will ever see me smoke because it isn’t good for your health. Now, what did you feel when you did what I asked you to do?”
“I felt very peaceful and full filled; like a bird up against the sky with the wind blowing across my face. Grandpa, I felt freedom almost as if I were a part of everything in the universe.”
“That’s good, Jacob, you are becoming aware of the greater purpose of what life is about. Life is short; we rush around to get to places that we really don’t want to be. People take life for granted like they will live forever, always looking to make more money for things they don’t need. It’s okay to make money but it shouldn’t be the driving force that keeps you going. It should be for the greater good of our lives helping others when it’s possible. To do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. Jesus said greater LOVE has no man than to lay down his life for a friend. These are the things that are truly important. I hope you understood the things I just said to you, Jacob. If you can enjoy each day that GOD gives you then you will have a full life.”
“It’s time to go back to the house. Before we leave, though, here is the clue for your eighteenth birthday.
“The forty-eight warriors and the twenty-eight Angels watch the fire that burns in the middle of the room. Although fire burns through these rocks, they are cool to the touch and it protects my journal.”
As we started back down the mountain, I noticed that the forest seemed to be listening to Grandfather and me as we talked. The animals were appearing and disappearing from behind the trees and the rocks. We stopped about halfway down and sat for a little while. I watched and listened to Grandfather talking to the animals. I observed a bear bring over her cub as if to introduce her cub to Grandfather and me. He told me to look into her eyes and that I would know the bear and her cub. For a moment I could feel her heart beating and the warmth she felt for her cub. Grandfather said that if you will look into the eyes of any animal, you will know them and their family. After we rested for a while we walked on down to the mountain to the sweat lodge. “Grandpa, do we have time to sit inside the sweat lodge today for a couple of hours”?
“Sure, we do, there is always time for meditation.” We built a fire to heat up the rocks to take inside of the lodge. It took about an hour to get the lodge hot enough. It was the first time we had meditated in several months. It was nice to sit in there with the temperature about 120 degrees, pouring water over the rocks and watching the steam rise up. I meditated on the day and all the clues Grandfather had given me over the past five years, trying to figure out what the clues were for. I knew he had a journal about an event that happened to him in 1897 but that was all I knew. He said if it was meant for me to know about it and to solve it then I would, with GOD’s help. We sat in there for an hour and then it was time to go and see how Grandma was doing. Grandma had supper ready for us, as usual. She had to be the best cook of anyone around. She could cook about anything.
Even though it was the end of May, it was still a little cool at night. After supper, we sat in front of the fireplace and built a small fire just to take the chill off the living room. They had a beautiful fireplace in the living room; built with a loose rock look that went up to the ceiling. It had bookshelves on both sides from the floor to the ceiling. There must have had at least a thousand books on each side of the fireplace. I asked them, “How many of these books have you read?” and they said, “All of them.” Grandfather said, “Son, all the knowledge you need is in these books. If you read and study them, you can learn anything you want to know.”
“Remember knowledge is power, the power to help you change things to make a better tomorrow for yourself and the people around you. I can only hope that you will read and learn everything that you can to help you out in this life.
“It is bedtime now we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”
It was five a.m. when Grandfather came in and woke me up. As I came out of my room, I could smell the bacon and eggs Grandmother was preparing for breakfast and, as I started down the stairs, I could also smell the biscuits and gravy. She sure knew how to cook!
We sat down at the table and Grandfather said grace before we could eat. I never saw Grandfather eat without first thanking GOD for all he had given us. After we finished, we put our dishes away in the sink before we went on our journey for the day. “Grandpa, what are we going to do today?”
“Jacob, we’re going to scout out the woods and the creeks on the mountain, looking for things that shouldn’t be there.”
We grabbed our backpacks and put food and water in them, enough to last for the day.
We walked along the trail beside the river, but the forest seemed quieter today than normal. I asked Grandfather, “Why is it so quiet in the woods this morning?” He told me there is a storm coming our way and that we would have to find shelter, but we still had a few hours before it hit. We walked up the first creek, zigzagging back and forth, making our way to the top of the mountain. As we walked, we came upon a round rock that was about four feet across with a square hole cut into the center of it. “Grandpa, is this what I think it is?” I asked.
“Yes, it is. It’s a hand-carved wheel off an old two-wheel cart. It has been there for several hundred years. Your great-great-grandfather found it. This creek leads to the top of the mountain, but it splits into three branches halfway up. All this is written down in my journal.”
My Grandfather shared many things with me about which path to follow and where they lead. He said, “One day this will be passed on to you when you find my journal, as I had to do from my Dad; as he did from his Dad. This is the way the journal has been handed down for three generations.
“It’s time to find shelter now before the storm hits. There’s a place not too far from here. It looks like it’s going to be a bad one, so let’s get going, Jacob.” We headed back toward the house, but we were going up. It took about thirty minutes to get where we were going. I had never seen this place: It was a room was cut about twenty-four feet back into the mountain and thirty feet wide and the ceiling was twelve feet high. It had a log front that looked like an old fort; the logs ran up and down. Blackberry vines and honeysuckle covered most of the front making it almost impossible to see unless you knew where it was. We got there just in time, too. We had just enough time to gather some dry wood and get it inside when the rain hit. We watched the hail come down ranging in size from a golf ball to a baseball. The wind was blowing so hard the rain looked like it was coming down sideways. The thunder was almost deafening, and the lightning was blinding if you were looking out when it struck. It lasted for the better part of three hours before it let up, it must have rained seven inches or more. When it stopped, the sun came out and the clouds moved on south. We started back home to make sure that Grandmother was okay. When we got home, she was coming out of the storm cellar. Thank GOD she was fine.
After supper, we sat at the kitchen table and talked about the storm, thanking GOD that there wasn’t any damage to the house or the barns. Before you knew it, it was time for bed and another exciting day spent with Grandfather was to be written down in my journal.
The summer went by faster than normal, but I learned a lot from Grandfather, as usual. It was time to go back home and register for college.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in. I thought about engineering or becoming a doctor. So, I took all the courses I needed that were relative to both subjects, along with a couple of classes on philosophy and Native American history. I thought I had to study a lot in high school,
