Article 5: The Spirit
By Colin Patridge
There once was a man who lived a long time ago. He lived in North America in a time before cities and advanced technology. His name was Moon Beam, and he was suffering through the agony of losing his wife.
His wife’s name was Singing Bird, and she had fallen ill with a life-threatening sickness. Even with the medicine of her people, the sickness overcame her. She died very early in the morning while her husband and family sat around her. So, Singing Bird passed quietly into the next world.
Moon Beam shaved his head as a deep searing pain gripped his heart. He laid beside Singing Bird until it was time to bury her lifeless body. The pain of losing his wife was almost too much to bear.
Days passed, Moon Beam became angry and demanded an answer from the Creator. He decided to walk to the special place where he and many others before him went to fast.
Moon Beam walked and walked for six days before reaching the special place. Quietly, he ate his meal which would be his last before the commencement of a four-night fast.
When he arrived at the isolated spot in the wilderness, sullenly, he set up his resting area with a makeshift bed on the ground. He was all set to begin his fast.
The first two nights were spent weeping and mourning his beautiful but departed wife. A few animals wondered and passed but it was mostly birds that stopped for a visit.
On the third night, as Moon Beam slept, he was taken from his body and carried into the extraterrestrial world by a spirit being which though he couldn’t see, he was rest assured that he was with friendly company.
Moon Beam traveled through the universe at the speed beyond light. He was shown different planets with many different people who lived on them. He was being taught that there are people all over the universe. There are many populations of people, and in many ways their lives are similar to his.
Moon Beam lost count of the many different worlds he saw. Before he knew it, the time to come back to Earth had come. He realized that his spirit-guide and he had traveled trillions of miles in a very short span of time.
Suddenly, earth was in sight; just as suddenly the light reflected off the moon illuminating the spirit of a woman. She wasn’t familiar, but she seemed to know Moon Beam. She smiled warmly at him. She had a radiance and glow about her that eased all Moon Beam’s emotional pains and anxieties.
The female figure spoke to him with a consolatory tone: “Now you see, you and everyone else follow the same pattern. Try not to mourn your wife. She is with family, and no longer in any form of pain. Our spirits live forever. It is a part of your job as human beings in life to live and learn. Loss is a part of that too. Now, go. Live!”
Moon Beam began to cry, not out of sorrow, but out of relief, joy and amazement. At that moment, he knew everything was going to be alright, and he knew in his heart that his wife was happy.
As suddenly as every other experience that he had had so far, Moon Beam was again back in his body. Another whole day and the fourth night of his fast had passed without an explanation; he knew it in his heart.
Moon Beam traveled back to his people reinvigorated and happy to be alive. Although he still missed his wife, he knew he’d see her again. For now, his job was to live.
About the author: Colin Partridge, spent his first 11 years living on Opaskwayak Cree Nation Reserve with his family. His father passed away when he was 18 years old. But he still has his mother and sister, including numerous extended family members. Colin is a father of three and a husband. He is currently enrolled as a full time student in the Bachelor of Arts program at UCN. In his teenage years, he was an avid writer and once published a poem ‘The Music’ in Sparkles in the Sand. Writing is a passion of his, which unfortunately he hasn’t given much attention until recently. He always says to himself, “As I get older I can feel the desire to write again reawakening within.”
Instructor’s remark: Colin Partridge was my student in the Composition and Rhetoric (ENG.1002) class. He is an aspiring writer with a strong connection to his Aboriginal roots. In “The Spirit”, Colin reinforces the belief of his people in the existence of life after physical death (Dr. Joseph Atoyebi).