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Photo Copyright © 2008, by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.

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Nebraska POW Camps

Underwater Boy

by White Feather

How hard is it to open up the door? It's a simple action, or so it seems. You turn the doorknob and pull the door open. If it's a solid door you can't see outside of it and you don't know what you'll be greeted with once you open the door. Do the possibilities on the other side of the door put you into fear? Does it keep you from opening the door?

Once there was a little boy who woke up in the middle of the night. He got up out of bed and walked through the house as the rest of his family slept. The boy was wide awake and wanted to play but did not want to awaken the family. As he tiptoed through the house he could find nothing that interested him. Eventually he came to the front door of the house.

As quietly as he could, he opened the front door, stepped through onto the porch, and closed the door behind him. He walked across the porch and then down the steps onto the front lawn. Still in his pajamas, he felt a brief chill but it did not slow him down. He walked across the lawn towards the lake. He looked up at the moon which was very full and very bright. It lit the way for the boy to walk slowly across the grass towards the lake which reflected the moon's glow on the surface of its waters.

Finally, the boy made it to the very edge of the water. He stood there for quite some time just looking out over the water and at the moon above. It looked so differently than when he saw it routinely during the day. The water seemed so black except where it reflected the moon. The trees and landscape surrounding the lake seemed to disappear except in silhouette. He could hear the waves lapping up onto the shore where he stood. He could suddenly feel the energy of the entire lake.

He wanted to enter the lake and behold its mysteries but he also wanted to ride the surface of the lake but he had no boat. The boats were all at the marina a long way down the shore.

The boy also wanted to fly over the lake's surface like a bird. He was overcome with many desires and felt pulled energetically by the lake to somehow experience it in a new and profound way.

The boy stood transfixed, not knowing what to do. He heard sounds. There were the night frogs and the night owls and the sound of the waves lapping up on the shore where he stood. He was no longer cold and the very slight night breeze now felt good. It seemed to coax him onward.

It was a good feeling knowing that all the people around the lake were asleep and that he was the only one standing by the lake and feelings its dark presence. The boy forgot all about his family and the house he lived in. He forgot about the neighbors who lived along the edge of the lake. He forgot about the boats and about anything human.

The boy looked into the lake and it was like looking into a mirror. Sure, the moon was reflected on the surface of the lake but as the boy looked deeper into the lake he entered a new dimension of feeling. He could feel his life in that lake. He could feel all the life in that lake. He could suddenly hear new sounds that he had never heard before while gazing at the lake. It seemed that beneath the surface of the lake there was a different reality that was much like what he experienced each night in his dreams.

Like with his dreams, he had to let go of all waking consciousness to enter that world. That's how he felt as he looked out over the lake and felt that world beneath its waters. But how does one enter that world?

The boy was suddenly saddened that he could not enter that world. He could not find a way to enter it. So he sat down on the shore and just watched the surface of the lake ripple. Perhaps he could enter through that rippling surface with his mind. And then he could swim with the fishes and explore that world without the need to breathe. If only he could breach the surface.

The surface of the lake was suddenly like the front door of the house in which he lived. If only he could silently turn the doorknob and slip out without anyone knowing it then he would be free to immerse himself in a world outside the confines he found himself in. Could he enter the lake with his mind without making a splash? Without anyone hearing him?

As soon as he thought that he found himself under the the water's surface moving silently through the water. He was neither cold nor hot. He propelled himself with no exertion on his part. He simply thought of moving forward and so he did. He could see and realized the moon lit up this world, too. He could breathe and there was no struggle whatsoever. He just silently moved through the water and explored.

There were some fish, though not many. The bottom of the lake was littered with debris. This saddened the boy. It looked like a junk yard. But as he moved out further towards the middle of the lake the junk thinned out and there were rocks and water plants and more fish. He loved how the moonlight cascaded down through the water. He loved the shadows that played on the lake's bottom.

The boy swam and swam until he had explored the entire lake.He then looked up at the surface from down below. From below the surface was now suddenly the same as it was from above. It was like a door he must go through to re-enter the world he lived in. At first, he was apprehensive about going up and breaking through the surface back into the other world. But slowly he realized that he had to go back through that door and that he would then have to go back through that other door back into his home.

After leaving the water the boy stopped on the shore and turned around to look at the lake some more. He felt so thoroughly invigorated and alive and happy. He felt like he had found a new world and he felt like he belonged in that new world. He didn't want to go home but eventually he turned around and began walking back to the house. He walked very slowly. When he got to the porch of the house he slowly walked up the steps and then turned around to look at the lake one more time.

To his surprise the lake was no longer there! This startled the boy. He looked around. The moon was still in the sky and the trees were still in the yard and the grass he had walked upon back from the lake was still there. But the lake was gone! This briefly saddened the boy but then he closed his eyes and felt himself swimming under the surface of the lake one more time. His body tingled all over and he realized the lake was still there inside him. He then opened his eyes and walked to the front door of his home. He hesitated a moment before turning the doorknob and entering. Slowly and quietly he entered the house and closed the door behind him. He felt his pajamas and realized that they were very dry. Making his way quietly to his room he got back into bed but it was quite some time before he could fall back asleep. He kept replaying his experience over and over. He was afraid that if he were to fall asleep he would lose it forever.

Although he finally fell back asleep he never lost the experience.

Copyright © 2008, by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.

Somatic Descent: Experiencing the Ultimate Intelligence of the Body

Circus Boy

by White Feather

There once was a young boy who went out into the hills to play after school. He roamed the hillsides and played in nature for hours. And every day he would get into trouble. His mother scolded him for not coming home in time for dinner. His father scolded him for neglecting his chores.

The boy was disciplined but it seemed to make no difference. All he wanted to do was go out into nature and play.

The townspeople realized he was forlorn. They all accepted that he would never amount to much and they kept a place for him in their society but it was a very lowly place.

The boy willingly accepted his role in society, knowing that as long as he could go out into nature and play that he would be happy.

Then one day a circus came to town and all the children wanted to attend. The boy's parents would not allow him to go to the circus and insisted that he work out in the fields while his siblings went to the circus.

The boy was greatly saddened by this. He did his chores in the field but then afterwards he went out into the forest and he told the forest of his pain. He told the animals and trees and plants that he wanted to play but he was forced to work as punishment for not conforming to what was expected of him.

The animals and plants and the whole forest heard him and they responded. The boy experienced a circus in that forest that was far grander than the one experienced by the other children in town attending the traveling circus.

When he came home that night and told his siblings and his parents of his exicting day they scolded him even more. They told him he would never ever go to a circus.

The boy thanked everyone, to their bewilderment, and then he said that the next day he would do his chores as before.

Everyone was bewildered. Why did he not react in a hostile fashion at being reprimanded so as he had done in the past?

The boy never reacted in a hostile fashion again. Eventually everyone just forgot about him and let him be.

The boy eventually grew up and left the neighborhood. He traveled far and wide. He never attended a circus but he had more fun than just about anyone. He eventually landed in a town where the circus wintered. He asked to be employed by the circus but only while they were in their wintering home. He was told that every circus performer had to go out on tour with the circus.

The boy said, "No thanks, I've already been there. And I know that the circus really only exists in the heart of the home we find ourselves in." The circus owners were aghast and told the boy to go away. The boy thanked the circus owners for refusing him a job and he left that town to travel the world and everywhere he went he created a circus that everyone he met could feel without attending an actual circus.

He continued on his journey. When the real circus came to a town the boy had been to, everyone suddenly missed the boy. But they didn't understand why. But their enjoyment of the circus was greatly enhanced. And the boy's travels were greatly enhanced. He always stayed one step ahead of the circus. And no one knew why they liked him so much. He was gone long before anyone could figure it out.

Copyright © 2008, by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.

How Important Is It?

by White Feather

Where do things begin and where do they end? Are beginnings and endings merely perceptions? Does anything ever truly begin or end? Is it merely in our perspectives that they do?

Every beginning is an ending and every ending is a beginning. What is the difference between them? Does anything ever end or is it merely tranformed into a new beginning? Does that new beginning carry forth elements of the previous death? Do we just play the same record over again except at a slightly different pitch? Does anything ever die? Or is it transformed and reformulated into a new cycle of life?

Does each new song not contain notes that were used in the previous song? Are all songs just rearrangements of the same notes in the musical scale? What links the varying arrangements of notes? What vibrations remain throughout all different arrangements of notes?

Can you sing a song without containing notes and phrases that have been used before in the expression of music? Does the music of the universe contain all notes and all phrases and all music? Is every song an expression of joy within the scales of vibration?

Is it the intricacies of music that are important or the simple fact that we are singing? What happens to the octaves of experience when we stop singing? Do they evaporate or do we merely stop accessing them? How important is it to have music flowing through our beings? How important is it that we sing along with that music?

Copyright © 2008, by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.