"Sacred Water."
Spring rain clouds follow early morning gusts of wind
and sudden drops in temperature.
By dawn, the smell of rain is heavy in the air.
The sun is masked in cumulus layers of pearl blue.
When I was a child, the people used
to watched the sky for changes in the weather.
I learned to watch for the fat dark rain clouds.
And I remember the excitement and the anticipation
as the cool wind arrived smelling of rain.
We children were seldom scolded or punished
for our misbehavior.
But we were never permitted to frolic with, or wet,
or waste fresh water.
We were given stern warnings about killing toads or frogs.
Harm to frogs and toads could bring disastrous cloud bursts
and floods, because the frogs and toads are
the beloved children of the rain clouds.
A huge toad lived in the bottom of a wooden box, buried
in the ground to protect the water shut-off valve.
As a child, I was fascinated with the big toad.
I'd lift off the lid of the box and look down
into the dim hole that smelled of damp gunny sacks wrapped
around the water pipe.
Sometimes, all I could see were the toad's big eyes
reflecting the sunlight.
When I got older, I used to ride my horse into the sand hills
after a summer rainstorm.
What an amazing sight.
Hundreds of little toads were popping out of the sand
everywhere.
Years later, in Tucson, I moved a flower pot in the garden
and uncovered four Sonoran red spotted toads
in the damp earth.
Their backs were the colors of ivory and copper,
speckled with red.
They slept head to head, each with its rear end pointed
in one of the four directions.
[LAUGHTER]
My great grandmother, Maria Anaya,
belonged to the water clan.
She had been born at Paguate Village, North
of Laguna Village.
After she passed on, the water clan people
made sure she had a big pottery jar full of water
at the head of her grave.
Every year around Easter, my father's clan's
women used to bring him sweet pudding.
Otherwise, he might have turned into a frog.
No one ever called my uncle Pauly
by his legal name, Richard.
Because when he was born, someone
thought he looked like a pollywog--
dark, fat, and wiggling.
[LAUGHTER]
When I was a child, the people used
to say that a person had passed on.
They seldom used the word died.
At the table before a meal, a small dish was passed around.
Pinches of food from each person's plate
were placed in the dish to feed the spirits
of those beloved family members who had passed on.
On All Souls Day, November 2, the people
take oven bread and red chili stew to the graves
to feed the spirits of the dead.
All these feedings of the spirits
were conducted with such tenderness and love
that as a child, I learned there is
nothing to fear from the dead.
They love us.
And they bless us when they return as rain clouds.
All around Laguna and Acoma, there
are sandstone formations, which make natural basins
and pools that hold rainwater.
These rainwater pools are cherished by the people even
now, because long ago in times of drought,
the survival of the people depended on the rainwater
stored in the sandstone pools.
The old time Pueblo people believe that natural springs
and lakes possess great power.
Beneath their surfaces lie the entrances
to the four worlds below this one.
[INAUDIBLE]
[LAUGHTER]