Coming back to my spot this time was a bit different than the last one. My last visit to my spot I had so much time to sit and reflect, but this time, as the semester has begun to pick up. My view hasn’t changed much, leaves have maybe changed colors slightly, but not much at all. There’s more trash in the area today, which is unfortunate. There are many beer cans, which makes me think that there was a party that moved out into the woods at some point of the night, only for the people to leave their trash out without thinking about how that affects the environment. I think that next time I’ll bring a trash bag and clean up the area. Thinking about Black Elk and my own experiences, I think about how, in a way, we are both reaching our most ‘spiritual’ places in similar ways. Although this point may be a stretch, after explaining I think it will make more sense. I was born into a very Catholic family in some ways. My mother went a Catholic high school and my father’s family was always very involved in their church when he was a kid. When I was young, my family went to church every weekend, my siblings and I went to Sunday School every week, and my mom taught some of our classes. During this …show more content…
More specifically, I get this feeling after hiking a tough mountain. This is where I begin to draw a connection with Black Elk. In all of his spiritual visions, he is in the sky looking upon his people and his land. In many religions there is an idea of deities being above the world. There is separation between them and their people. Like the Penobscot Indians who were afraid to climb Katahdin because they feared the god on the top of it. For Black Elk, he is taken to the grandfathers who are in the sky, above their people. After working hard to peak a mountain, and taking in the great views that the world around has to offer, I feel like I am enlightened in some way, or at least more