In his novel, Ashes and Snow, published in 1992, Gregory Colbert wrote:
As I lay dreaming, Montezuma waded with me into the Limpopo River.
We crossed through the swirling eddies and shared a sun-baked stone in the middle of the river.
Montezuma said, “You are disoriented. Your journey is in danger of becoming an elaborate flight away from yourself. You are paying too much attention to numbers, compass points, altitudes, tides, temperatures. You are looking for patterns or logic in coincidences. Your movements are mathematical when they ought to be musical. You’re doing steps. You still haven’t learned how to become the dance.
Remember, a compass and a pen can give you a reading on the lay of the river, but no mechanical instrument can measure the motion of the heart.
Some maps are drawn in melting snow.
By living in your mind, you are draining all the meaning from your miles and rivers. Your heart is a flute, but you are playing it like a drum. A camera is a musical instrument. There is a whole range of octaves you are leaving totally unexplored”.
He paused for a long time. I said nothing.
“You are writing and photographing the miles. Are you really living them?”
Still I said nothing.
“Put away your pen and camera for a while. Prove that you are worthy of the gifts you have been given.
Look at the world through the lens of your own eyes.
Then you will be ready to navigate in the spirit of birds.
And know that one day, when you have crossed your last river, you will stand before an elephant who will measure the value of your life not by how many miles you have traveled and how much you have seen, but rather by how much you have loved.”
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Dunno about you, dear Reader but, THAT totally resonates in me.
Love the story you shared here!
I’m glad you have enjoyed the extract, Heather
The entire novel written in letter form is brilliant and the sepia photo illustrations are absolutely unique in the way they depict the trusting and noble reliance of humans on the Animal kingdom. It is lovely to see the reverse of reality, if only in images – a balm for the soul.
Here is another of my favorite snips from Ashes and Snow:
“My mother once said to my father, “You give and you give, but in what manner?
You give your heart, you give understanding, you give the warmth of your body, you give tenderness, you give letters, you give images, you give gifts, you give flowers. But you always give in pieces, you never give it all together.
You never give yourself.”
And here is another extract: “Perhaps I misunderstood the lesson that the whales and my teacher were trying to give me – that you embrace wonder, that you feel wonder without ever really understanding it.
I made the same mistake with you.
I should have spent less time trying to understand you and more time simply loving your enigma.”