Stella Longland

Being of Earth Stella Longland

American Buffalo, roaming in abundance on the Spirit Plains, and European Bison, hanging on by a thread in Wildlife Parks, are the Stars of this book. Taking place in the world of everyday and in less concrete realities, the story focuses on the relationship between Bison and Humans that has been ongoing from Neolithic times until the precarious present. Feeling their loss and finding solace in their company, the narrator, in a stream of consciousness narrative, which is, literally, out of this world, records a mystical, metaphorical vision of the Earth and its inhabitants.

Choosing to turn to the Ancestors for help to find meaning in the modern world, where humanity itself hangs on by a thread, leads to an 'optimistic' conclusion; humanity is now the abundance that will carry life, as the Bison did, into the future. But this time there could be a different outcome because we can influence our destiny, two words that, with a little re-arranging, become 'our density'.

Colours are important in a world of visioning and twenty-four colour images are included in the text to bring the colours alive. There are diagrams and interpretations of the medicine wheel and introductions to the teachings of Beautiful Painted Arrow, Joseph Rael, but the book is not in any way didactic.

If you love to think about life and consciousness there will be something that will entertain you in this book and that is surely the purpose of story telling.