The Cottonwood star

I'm lucky - I have a beautiful cottonwood tree in my garden..........which is now 
shedding its leaves.

Each day I fill a large sack full of leaves and twigs

and I wonder..........how many leaves does the tree have?? :)

But, as I rake and bag the leaves, I pick up the dried out twigs and think back to my time at Wounded Knee, many, many years ago, when I first heard the story of the cottonwood star.........and here it is, taken from my journal...

In 1969, I lived and worked on the Oglalla Sioux Reservation in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, as part of a project created by 
David Hawkins, he of Manhattan Bomb Project and, later, ESS, fame. 

Pat Pumpkin Seed, one of the tribal elders, shared this story with me

during a walk he and I took in The Badlands:

The Secret of the Star…..

My people believe all things

come from Mother Earth.

 We believe that stars form in the earth and, when ready,

 search for the roots of the magical cottonwood trees.

They finally come to rest in the small twigs

at the end of the cottonwood branches.

Here, they wait.................until they are needed.

When the Spirit of the Night Sky decides that she needs more twinkling, beautiful stars, she calls on

the Wind Spirit to shake all the cottonwood trees.

The Wind Spirit blows and blows, and, 
as the cottonwood twigs 
break off, 
the twinkling stars are released

and race up to a special place in the Night Sky.

If YOU want to add a new star to the night sky,

find some cottonwood twigs, wait for a clear night,

and hold up your twigs to the sky –

and SNAP!  

Then, look up into the night sky again.

Can you see YOUR star twinkling?

Imagine…….

You have added a beautiful new star 
to the kingdom of the night sky......

This is a story that I tell every new class/group of students/young scientists I work with - I hand out twigs, we break them, we release the tiny stars to the heavens above................