The Wind Reader's Gifts - World Voyages of the Destiny's Dreams

Anya spoke to the sea and sky. "Sister Dawn, I hear your whisper and I see you getting closer. Will you bring us wind today?"

"We have been here a long time in these hot days, with the ship' sails waiting for the wind. We are desperate."

Anya was the Storyteller of the Blue Lantern, on the wooden sailing ship called Destiny's Dreams, voyaging over the seas in the 1800s.

She was born deep in the wilderness, a child of the South American jungles and mountains. There ancient stories passed down by word of mouth carried wisdom and history for her peoples.

She carried on the oral storytelling and wrote the stories in her journals too. They sat stacked to the ceiling in her cabin on the ship.

Captain Alfonse of the Destiny's Dreams, of French and Peruvian descent, understood the priceless value of Anya's stories.

Striding beneath the towering square, white sails on three masts, Alfonse was grateful for her insights and intuition.

In her heart Anya sought oneness with the Great Spirit and closeness to all creation, the trees, the sky and ocean, the fish, the land animals, and the very wind in the air.

She looked at the stars and felt they were lights from another world above them like holes in the fabric of sky letting the light from eternity come through.

Her solemn brown eyes scanned the sea, hoping. Where Anya grew up, the Great All Embracing Spirit was everywhere, in nature, and in everything.

"Great Spirit, we are hungry and thirsty. But land and supplies are many miles away. Day after day the ship rests here without power in the sails."

She thought of the new passenger on the ship. The young girl was different, but very interesting. She called herself "Wind Reader."

"I can predict it. The wind talks to me," she said.

The girl carried small stuffed animal toys everywhere with her. She said they would get lonely if she left them in her cabin.

She did not like crowds, bright lights, scratchy clothing, or the scent of certain foods.

She liked peaceful summer mornings, and the feeling of tapping her fingers together.

Anya picked up her journal and pen, and began to pour out what was inside onto the paper.

"Sometimes I wonder why I write these stories. Will someone else read them someday? Will they make a difference in someone's life?"

Her expression lightened.

"Something new will happen today. Something wonderful."

She could not explain why she felt this. It floated like a bubble up from her depths.

She wrote. "I do not know where this came from. But I know it."

"The feeling is so strong. I must watch carefully so I do not miss a hint of opportunity."

Under the lightening morning sky, Anya's pen moved faster. In the west the stars and crescent moon were sliding closer to the horizon against the darkness.

Anya's chest rose and fell with a deep breath. Her eyebrows were raised in a questioning arch in the middle, above downcast dark eyes, strong cheekbones, tan skin, and a mouth that was dropped open slightly.

She wore a bright, shawl of many colors over her shoulders, a long skirt with colorful layers and rows of hand stitched tucks, and brown boot like foot coverings.

In dim light Anya's brass lantern cast patterns of light through the blue etched glass onto the ship railing, the wooden deck, and the smooth water.

Anya looked at the reflections on the sea next to the ship and wrote.

"How long, Brother Sun, until Sister Ocean sings to us again with her songs in the wind?"

"Great Spirit, we are stranded, with our water and food supplies running low. Just a little breeze to power our ship, so we can get supplies on shore."

Anya swayed with the rolling of the wooden ship. Another swell lifted it, then let it slide down into a valley of the sea.

She turned her eyes to the glistening white squares of canvas on the three masts. The sails sent feeble snapping sounds as they fluttered and the ocean gurgled against the wooden sides of the ship.

"We are already on short rations. There are plenty of fresh fish, but everyone is thirsty and the dry hardback biscuits are like powder in our mouths. We need fresh foods we can gather or trade for on land."

It was in the 1800s off the southern west coast of the continent of North America.

The Destiny's Dreams carried passengers who were on their way to San Francisco.

More passengers waited to there to be picked up and carried north to Pacific Northwest ports.

Some were on their way to the Alaskan gold fields. Others were seeking to set up homesteads in the dense forest wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

Now the passengers and crew were getting restless and losing confidence in Captain Alfonse.

Yesterday some of them began planning how to steal one of the surfboats with paddles and try to row east and find land.

The Wind Reader overheard them.

"Tomorrow the wind is coming to carry us toward land," she said.

They scoffed at her, seeing only an insignificant figure with odd behavior.

But a few of them hesitated.

"What if she is right? We will have set ourselves adrift in a small boat with paddles and few provisions."

sone others said, Alright. We will wait only a few days more."

As Sister Dawn grew brighter, Anya felt the fingers of the cool air on her neck and her skin rose in prickles.

Her thoughts raced. "What if the wind did not arrive soon? They would lose part of the crew needed to climb up high and adjust the sails and rigging. Without them to help, the ship mught be stranded even if the wind did begin to blow."

Over a hundred years later, Anya's journals and lantern would be discovered by children who were a dusty old sailor's chest in the attic of the Mystical Lighthouse keepers' House.

There, far into the future, nine year old Maria and her siblings would keep the diaries a secret, so they could feel like adults who knew something important.

By the light through the attic windows, they read the journals. Later down at the sandy beach below, they acted out scenes from the stories.

"The children are so creative when they play," the adults would say.

"Where do they get all their ideas?"

"I am just glad they are busy, so I can tend the lower vegetable and herb gardens next to the beach this summer."

"Yes. When winter's storms arrive maybe the can play these games I indoors too."

High pitched children's voices mingled with the waves shushing into tidepools.

"Woooo. I am the wind. Blowing in the sails of the Destiny's Dreams."

Back in the 1800s, where Anya sat writing stories in her journal on the ship, she heard footsteps.

"Good morning to our storyteller." A slight figure in loose muted gray and blue swayed and approached. It was like an ocean wave gently moving. The voice was soft and singsong.

"Greetings, how are you?" Anya's low voice carried in the still air.

Her eyes scanned the figure and the face of the draped figure. The ship was full of whispers about the mysterious young girl who boarded the vessel at the last small port.

Anya had overheard the discussions.

"Why is she alone? What does she mean when she says she is a Wind Reader?"

"Do you think she is imagining things?"

"Is she joking with us?"

"What does a Wind Reader do?"

"She has an accent I cannot place. Where is she from?"

Now the figure studied the ocean, the sky, and the horizon. She closed her eyes as if she was sensing the air ir some invisible message.

Anya waited. She had seen something similar in her voyages. Some people had behavior that puzzled others and seemed odd. But they may have deep, rare, strong senses beyond the average.

They felt everything in an extra vivid way. Sometimes they had siezures or bouts of being overwhelmed. But they had unusual gifts.

"The wind is coming today." The young girl's voice was shy. Anya barely heard her.

She knew better than to ask how the young girl knew this. But she trusted what she heard.

Anya wrote it in the journal. Then she wrote more.

"We know different animals have extra strong abilities to smell or hear, and instincts that we do not understand."

She paused and her breaths came slow and deep.

"I, too, feel and know things that others would not I understand. I hesitate to share this because I fear what they might say about me."

Anya felt a weight lifting and her lips curved into a smile.

"I believe you," Anya said to the Wind Reader. "Sister Wind is on her way to us today." She could not explain it in words, but she felt a knowing and a kinship with the Wind Reader.

The young girl's eyes glanced around with a startled expression, but did not meet Anya's.

Again Anya pushed her pen fast across the journal.

"There is such a depth in the Wind Reader's eyes. But I see she is truly one of the special ones. Some say strange, but I say gifted."

Then Anya’s voice blended with the whisper of the dawn air when she spoke.

“Did you feel something ?”

“Yes, look.” The Wind Reader’s hand slowly raised and pointed.

Anya’s mouth turned into a smile. “Ripples on the water. The air is moving. Sister Wind."

Wind Reader's mouth curved up into a smile. She laughed with happiness. The wind was here now.

Anya joined in with smiles and laughter of joy.

Sounds of footsteps came and the sailors on the night watch shift walked up and followed the gazes of the two women.

There were shouts of joy.

Passengers and crew burst out onto the deck.

Under the sparkling morning sun coming into a blue sky everyone began talking. The excitement was contagious.

"Wind. Feel it."

"So cooling in the heat."

"The sails. See that. Full of wind. We are moving again."

Anya put her pen to paper again.

“A sense of wonder has overtaken the people on the Destiny’s Dreams. Wind is approaching us across the seas. We are saved.”

In another era, over a hundred years later, the children in the lighthouse keepers’ attic looked out the windows at the ocean 500 feet below.

A sense of wonder filled them. Then one the nine year old girl spoke.

“I think I know someone who is like the Wind Reader. I thought she was odd. But extra talented."

The children nodded.

"Let's invite her over to play," said the little girl. She thought of the lonely, hurt expression on the other girl's face that she saw sometimes.

The next day was sunny at the lighthouse. Down on the beach a new child joined the group. Everyone was glad to have their new friend. She had such wonderful, creative ideas.

The new girl felt welcomed and the laughter of the children playing echoed across the sands and tidepools.

Over a hundred years earlier, the white clouds of sails billowed with air and the wooden ship glided into a bay off the southern North American coast into a big bay.

The surfboat was lowered, and they paddled to shore. There they drank deeply from crystal streams and springs flowing down from the mountains.

They gobbled fresh berries and gathered wild foods growing and herbs

That night there was feasting, music from flutes and stringed instruments, and joy.

The Wind Reader was the heroic person honored by the grateful crew and passengers.

They celebrated from twilight to dawn, their dancing figures silhouetted on the decks of the Destiny's Dreams.

In the Unseen World, Sister Wind danced too, sending cool breezes to them and making gentle waves sing.

They were surrounded by beauty.