Ready for Eternity

Tad and Mike had started out of town as the sun peaked over the ridge and the frost glistened on the balck ribbin that led to Sedona. The brothers carried all their worldly possession on their backs.Their packs and sleeping bags did not encumber them and their lite steps left no trace on the road or on the air. Their spiritual load was also lite. In the sweat lodge they both had had the same vision of traveling to the vortexes at Sedona. On the way there they were to encounters other energies to make them wiser to the ways of survival in the greater world.

The morning sounds of small birds and the wind rustling the vegetation alongs the roadside let no room for words, only excitement as to what they would encounter along the way. This tranquility was broken with the sound of a diesel engine applying air breaks and then the sound of tires squealing on the payment ahead when a passing semi responded to their thumbs. A brilliant blue semi pulled over ahead of them. Tad and Mike sprinted up to it as the driver adjusted his mirror waiting for them to climb on board.

Where you boys heading?" the driver asked with a loaded southern drawl. Tad and Mike looked at each other. Tad was thirty and Mike was twenty-eight.

"Sedona," Mike answered in a soft voice as he brushed the thick black hair back from his face. His black eyes, set deep above the hight cheekbones, were sizing up the driver. As the driver pulled out onto the the road the air in the cab thickened.

"Coming from the res? Sedona got some good jobs ... We will be there by noon."

'It was going to be a long four hours,' Tad thought.

The driver was going to continue his half sentences when Tad reached over to turn on the radio. "Do you mind?" he asked.

"No, not at all. Music is good for the soul. No, not at all. Sunday morning ... Reverend Paul is on. Gives a great sermon." The driver's voice boomed, filling every corner of the cab. Tad's hand stopped with that remark and the sight of the pamphlets on the dash. 'Are You Ready for Eternity?’ Was this the first lesson?

"You are right," he replied. Instead of turning on the radio he reached into his backpack and pulled out a small hand drum. Grently tapping it he began to chant. "i-ya-hoo, i-ya-hay, i-ya-emm, i-ya-hoo....'

"What is that you are saying, boy?" the driver's face was starting to look worried. Tad kept up the quiet chanting.

Mike leaned forward, he softly and seriously said, "Tad is a shaman. He sings a blessing to the spirits for the ride." The hissing sound of the air breaks being applied drowned out the sound of tad's drum and chant.

"Can't have no heathen demon spirits in my truck! You boys have to get out ... here and now!" The driver's face now held a mixture of fear and anger. Tad and Mike quickly grabbed their gear and jumped down form the truck. In unison their voices, loud and clear, flowed back into the cab. "Thanks for the ride. As the truck pulled away, 'The boys' started to laugh. The sound of their laughter in the clear desert air soothed their souls.The laughter helped cover the young men’s nervousness about what was to come. Lesson number one. They knew in their heart that there was danger in revealing their true selves. Their foot steps on the road to their destiny were lite. The quiet of nature again prevailed.

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