Heap Strong Buffalo Medicine

MEDICINE BUFFALO WITH CALF

DAKTARI IN HIS HAILCHASING HEYDAY - CIRCA 1968

My friend Deirdre knows the meaning of all kinds of animals.
After sharing my surprise bison sighting with her, Deirdre emails me the following:

" If you are shown Buffalo, you may be asked to use your energy in prayer. You may also be called upon to be an instrument of someone else's answer to a prayer. To honor another's pathway, even if it brings you sadness, is a part of the message that Buffalo brings.”

For the next few days. I keep my eyes open and my ears pealed expecting to run into a person whose prayers I can answer. By Day 2, absolutely nada presents itself. Then, last night, an opportunity knocks.

I’m invited to speak about my work in Africa at a Rotary gathering to honor major donors to the Rotary Foundation. Before the main event, there’s a cocktail party. I’m talking to my friend Brian when a dark haired woman in a green dress approaches the two of us. Her name is Donna Lee. I don't know her well but I do know that she lost her husband last fall.

I can see from Donna’s face that she feels isolated being at a cocktail party without Vince. And since we are herd animals, just like the buffalos, she is seeking refuge by saying 'Hi' to someone she recognizes. Cocktail parties are like that, so I know the feeling.

It’s not long before Brian heads off to get some food and Donna and I are deep in discussion about her situation.

"This is the first Rotary event I've been to since Vince died," she tells me.

"It must be so hard," I say. Tears spring to her eyes.

"I wasn't going to come," she said. "But just as I decided not to, the clouds parted and the sun shone through. I feel like Vince wants me to here tonight."

"Everything happens for a reason," I sympathize.

She starts talking about Vince and I listen. She tells me how they were so close, and how much she misses him. She tells about finding an unopened 2004 birthday card from Vince while cleaning out his office - two days before her birthday this April. She shows me the bracelet she’s wearing and about how it has two hearts linked together with a chain.

"You know you're wearing a lovely green dress tonight." I interrupt gently.

"Yes," she acknowledges. "And you know something, I never wear green."

"Well, you look good in green. And green is the color of healing. I like to wear green myself."

"Do you think this will ever end?" she asks.

"You'll never be cured ," I say softly. Her eyes are filling with tears.
"Nor would you want to. But you will be healed eventually. You've taken the first steps by wearing green and by coming to this affair tonight. It's very brave of you."

"Yes," she replied it is.

"You know you can't bring him back," I say "but Vince will never leave you."

A look of gratitude replaces a few of the tears and a shy smile appears on her face.

I give Donna Lee a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and I’m off to give my speech.

After the presentation, I try to find Donna again but she has fled.
I hope she will begin to get out more and resume her active life in Rotary service.
The bison medicine just might work for her.

Also, prayer answering seems like a worthwhile endeavor to me.
I’m beginning to think that healing is more important that curing in most situations.
But it’s not something that MD’s like me are trained to do!

When I was a young hail chaser out on the prairies of Nebraska and Colorado, we used to repeat an old bachelor aboriginal saying about bison. I think it went something like this:

“When the chips are down, the buffaloes are empty.”

I think that even if they're not completely empty, they often feel empty.

Maybe something could be done about that.

And that is my final musing on bison medicine, for a while at least!

DAKTARI

Where the Buffalo Roam

The buffalos have Landed

but the gypsies left their cart!
Beware - Buffalo Gore!
Alien Lander Offloading Sheep -but not in Merrimac!

Grandma Gerry tells Sophie about her trip to Rome

May 6 (Recess Day 6) and my Mom is visiting from Boulder, Colorado.

She's 82 and it’s raining so we decide to go to a museum.
I pick the Buttonwoods Museum in Haverhill. I’ve never been before, but it googles up nicely, so we head over.

A delightful lady volunteer gives us a tour of the grounds. My Mom listens patiently. She’s a little hard of hearing but it’s a private tour and Mom is not shy about asking our tour guide to speak up. The guide explains that in 1632 when the first dozen English arrived in what would later be Haverhill, they rowed their boat ashore at the site of a ceremonial tree that was maintained by two middle-aged bachelor Indians. They were the only two inhabitants, as the rest of their village had succumbed to the smallpox and other alien diseases. The natives signed a treaty with the twelve Brit boatmen and the town of Haverhill was founded.

The aboriginal American inhabitants, called the Penacooks, are long gone, as are the first settlers. But guess what, that Indian ceremonial TREE is still alive. It’s awesome standing beside this ancient tree and gazing across the Merrimack River. I feel like I'm transported back in time 370 years to a land and a culture that existed before the Europeans. What a blessing.

On the way back Mom and I decide to follow the road along the river instead of taking the highway. I’m still in tree-revery mode as our aging Pontiac chugs up a hill just before entering Merrimac, Mass. As we crest the rise, on our left about 30 feet away is a herd of bison. Real honest to God buffalo. Seven adults and a bee-yewtiful baby bison. They’re in a small field, gathered around an ancient gypsy cart on wheels - like the one from the beginning of the Wizard of Oz. The gypsies have absconded for the day and the cart itself is filled with chickens.

I pull the car to a halt. "Whoa Nellie," I think. "The buffalo have landed." And I start to laugh.(I just can't help myself - what a weird and marvelous planet we live on! A wolf in Maudslay State Park earlier this week and now a herd of bison in Merrimac.

We get out of the car and walk down a dirt road to get a better view.
A farmhand in a truck passes us slowly and brakes to a halt.
“Don’t get too close to those buffalos,“ admonishes the driver.
“We’ll be careful,” I reply
“Stay at least 10 feet back from the electric fence,” he yells cheerfully as he drives away. “The owner was gored twice last week!”

As he vanishes in a cloud of dust, I think to myself:
“Twice? Once I can understand. But how does one manage to get gored twice? What must Mrs. Buffalo Owner be thinking?”

We stay at least 20 feet from the fence and carefully inspect the herd.

“Well, here’s the home where the buffalo roam!” I observe to my Mom.
“You’re right about Rome,” Grandma Gerry replies.
“What about Rome?” I ask in a louder voice.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” she non-sequiturs back.
“Mom, you need a hearing aid!” I expostulate for the 5th time today.

“What would I do with a hearing aid?” she asks indignantly.
“Put in in your ear,” I tell her.
“But how would I ever find it?” she asks plaintively.
“Good point!” I concede.

At night I go out with my neighbor Bruce for some star gazing. We are checking out Cancer and the bee-yewtiful Beehive Cluster. Mars is right next to it. I'm looking at Mars with my binoculars when all of a sudden, this really bright object goes booking across the sky right where I'm looking.

"What's that," I ask Bruce.
"Too fast to be a plane," he replies. "It must be a satellite."

We follow it along for a minute or two until it passes into the Earth's shadow and vanishes. Then we head to the back yard to check out Hercules.

"Don't look now," says Bruce, "but here comes another one."
Sure enough, another satellite is passing through Hercules - headed for Vega . We check out Saturn and I identify Procyon in the Little Dog. And just as we turn to go in for a nightcap, darned if another satellite crosses our path! Three satellites in one evening! It's a shower of satellites.

"I wonder," I ask Bruce. "Are these satellites or visitors from outer space headed for some alien get together?"

"Could be a big night for alien abductions," he replies.
"Call it a night?"
"You bet!"

Buffalos, wolves, space-alien abductors, and 400 year old Indian trees.
Not to mention the Oz cart and all those gypsy chickens!

All in a day's play for daktari!

DAKTARI