His Journey Onward

the message was the first I'd heard in three days. My phone had been off due to low battery, and when I turned it on, Thistle's voice came to me in a tone I'd never heard before. "Chaldean is dying. Get here now." I called her back within seconds, keeping it together as best I could as she told me the what's and how's and why's. a dear friend, a coyote, stood by me as I listened, cracking with every word until I hung up, and held me as I crumbled. My precious fellow trickster. Will you ever know how much you meant to me just then?

And so I was on my way, 7 hours north to Seattle to catch a flight the next morning, the first one I could manage. The minutes flowed by like white water, rushing me forward, propelling me through airport, and train station and city street to the door of my friend and teacher. I called upstairs to be let in, but too late.

Chaldean, my dear friend and teacher, had died before my plane hit the runway and I hadn't gotten the message until I was at his door.

I first met his at Temple of the Four Winds. He was a lone figure of calm among so much bustle. He struck me as different, but I couldn't say why.

I met him again at Earth Day three years ago when we were in ritual together. I was among four dancers of the elements, and he was the embodiment of the animals world, the Green Man, the animal spirit given voice. Though deep and almost monotone, he called up a howl in me that echoed across the Circle. I knew then a moment of his power.

We met again and again over the years, moments here and there, each teaching, laughing, moving across each others' paths. He called me Faerie. He called me Sister. He called me sweet. I wasn't sweet, I was lucky. Lucky to have been in a place to have known such a man. And to that man I have this to say:

Dearest Chaldean, my teacher, my friend, thank you. Two little words that make up so much of what you mean to me. I will never forget all that you taught me, and all the laughter we've shared. I'm so grateful to have known you, and to have shared my journey with you even for such a short time. Rest in peace, and journey on, knowing you are loved.