Teach Me to Fish

<body stylesrc="fish.html" bgcolor="#99CC99" link="#00FFFF" vlink="#008080"> <center><font size="+2" color="#FFFFFF" face="VERDANA"><p>Teach Me To Fish</font><br> <font size="0" color="#FFFFFF" face="VERDANA">by Shinan Barclay<br> P.O. Box 1300<br> Sedona, AZ 86339 </font></center>  <blockquote> <p><font size="6"><b><img src="images/fish1r.gif" width="144" height="71">H</b></font><font face="Verdana">igh noon and only a peep of twilight dimly lit the frozen Bering Sea. I curled up in my parka like a big furball, crouched over my fishing hole, dropped a hook and line into the dark, frigid waters and waited for supper to surface. Not even the great North wind stirred on those thousand miles of ice and snow. Yet, through the icy fog I saw the silhoutte of Anucktoovic, the great shaman, as he reeled in fish after fish. "Cheechaco," he often called me, white woman who fishes for souls. I shuffled toward the shadowy figure and hesitantly said, "Ah-nuck- too-vick teach me to fish in these deep, cold waters." </font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Verdana"><img src="images/fish2.gif" alt="Wake Up" vspace="10" width="144" height="49"><img src="images/fish5.gif" align="top" hspace="125" width="108" height="47"></font></p> <p><font face="Verdana">After a long silence and without looking up he spoke, "AH GO HING A OOELL ELLA" I was stunned. He spoke words that I had never heard. Sounds I had never known, imagined or uttered. Was this a dialect of Inuit known only to great shamans, I wondered? I knew that learning how to fish from an Eskimo shaman held an eternal truth, a deeper spiritual meaning than just bringing in the catch. I thought that he must be saying some magical chant to connect me to the Guardian Spirit of the fish. But I didn't understand. I didn't know the protocol for making requests of shamans and I was afraid of losing this opportunity. "Great fisherman, wise one, if you would speak to me in English, it would make my heart glad." Anucktoovic grunted, spit into his mitten, </font><font color="#800080" size="5" face="Verdana"><strong><img src="images/fish4.gif" alt="Teachability is Humility" align="right" hspace="50" vspace="15" width="108" height="59"></strong></font><font face="Verdana">"Pppttthhhaaa..." and then slyly murmered, "you gotta keep your worms warm." </font></p> </blockquote> <p align="center"><img src="images/fish6.gif" alt="Small ones and big ones" align="top" hspace="20" vspace="5" width="108" height="42"><img src="images/fish3.gif" alt="Sometimes, You must go deep to find the fish" hspace="30" vspace="25" width="144" height="81"></p>  </p> </body>