Event #76: Monday, June 28, 2010

The words boil down to "Oota Dabun Hurit" and Ktaholeh

Tonight, I came home to words in the notebook again. I’ve included a picture here. I put the search words “Lenape and Oota” in a search engine, and got the names below and wrote this email to Bob:

“I hope you slept well. Looks like it was a name lesson tonight. The words translated as below; not one name but two. How did she mean it? You are a Beautiful Day Star? Was there anything else? By the way, every night now I go to sleep with the mantra:  “I’m open“. Also, the liquid motion in my (closed-eye) vision appears to be there every night, so I’m wondering if it’s something that’s in my vision all the time? Anyway, here it is, the translation:

OOTA DABUN: Algonquin name meaning “Day Star”.

Oh, my God, WHY did it have to be OOTA????? Does it rhyme with Ute? That’s just too much. Please tell me maybe it’s a long “O” or something — (not likely, I guess).

and HURIT: Algonquin name meaning “Beautiful.”
Ktaholel…

And Bob’s response: What it is, I think, is her given name, and yes, it is UTE! Nuttah, is her nickname, I am apparently the only one allowed to call her that in her group, or at least I am the only one that does. We are sticking with the nickname, but it is somewhat intriguing that there is another “coincidence”. Another thing is if you drop the “N” and “H” in Nuttah, look what you get. We just stayed alone along the water with the puppies. She just seems very happy to have me around, it doesn’t have to be anything special. Kind of an odd thing, but I guess if you are a complete orphan and you believe you were the cause of your only parent’s death, it makes sense she is happy that she can “bring them back”. Have to get out to the line again, my break b over. Slept well, just not long enough.
Ktaholel Awup
Somehow that phrase had more impact or something last night, not sure what it is, but it has such resonance and significance today.

My email to Bob: What phrase? The name she told you last night or “ktaholel awup”? And doesn’t it just figure that Oota would rhyme with Ute? She was right in delaying the unearthing of that name for a bit, don’t you think? And what a coincidence. How many people have we met in life named Ute? I hope she doesn’t figure into this whole scene in some way.

A side note here, because the above requires a little explanation: I have worked for a woman named “Ute” for about the last 12 years. Yeah… easily, 12 years. A long time. Her name “Ute” is pronounced: OOTA, but she is not Lenape, she’s German. We have, what I would describe to be a contentious relationship, me and my boss named “Ute”. Hence, my exclamation above: “Oh, my God, WHY did it have to be OOTA???” We are at opposite sides of any spectrum, and there will never be any place of coming together, except… that I work for her. That’s about all I have to say on that matter at the moment, except that this is just another one of many weird “coincidences”.

One other little side note: I’ve been keeping journals as these events have unfolded. I keep the journals in Microsoft Word, but for some reason I have to limit the size of each “section” to roughly 20 pages. I don’t know if it’s the size of the pictures, the length of the narrative or what, but if I go much beyond 20 pages, things start to get out of hand. So I have had to divide things into these 20-page chunks, and this post was just the end of the 3rd of those “chunks”. So, here we go… on to Part 4.

Event #75: Sunday night, June 27, 2010

There was only one change tonight, which was odd for an entire weekend. The silver heart was on the corner of the dresser again. So this morning, I wrote this email to Bob:

“Hope it’s not too ridiculously hot there today. How’s your email situation? Also, saw Nuttah had dropped in — anything?”

I heard no response, because Bob’s email on his Blackberry is not working at the moment. So he didn’t tell me until tonight when we talked on the phone; just that she was “there”, but he was too sleepy to get anything.

Things are moving rather slow right now. Bob thinks it has something to do with the density of the atmosphere at this time of year. It’s been a really, unusually hot June this summer, if it continues, the electric bill will be out of control. But if you think about it, the air IS heavier, denser, more humidity… and if you’re “traveling” through… time? Through what? I don’t know what you’d even travel through, I’ve NO idea how this whole thing works, it boggles my mind. When I try to think about what’s happening, I just get nowhere. So I content myself to just record the events as they happen, react to things as they happen, listen to Bob’s descriptions as best I can, take notes, keep records, take pictures. It’s all I can do at the moment, cause I have absolutely NO idea how to really explain the events of the last few months.

Event #74: Thursday, June 24, 2010

This part happened Friday evening, June 18, 2010: Things different tonight: The arrangement with Nuttah, Bob and me, the big heart and the silver turtle charm. I hope I took a picture because I don’t remember the entire arrangement now that it’s Monday afternoon.

Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tonight I went up after a meeting I had to attend after work. I sort of expected something, because lately, she often comes on Thursday. Also, it’s been awhile; almost a week if you go by previous posts. Bob & I have been moved (our paper-doll characters) as were the wolves (tëme). She moved herself outside of the turtle shape (she’d been inside), and put Bob & I behind her, and the wolves behind us. The large stone heart is in front of Stewie  & Kate. The little silver heart charm is on the corner of the dresser, where it often is, pointing at Bob, but as if the actual Bob was in the bed. I never had time to photograph it, but I drew (a very rough) sketch showing the configuration of where everyone was so that I could remember it. I couldn’t find the little carved stone. I looked all over the dresser in the dark, but it wasn’t there. So I checked Bob’s bedside table, and there it was; on the lamp base. And in the notebook on the side-table were some words.

Bob's words in the notebook, all English this time

I had left a piece of paper inside Nuttah’s “jewelry turtle” with the word “wanishi” on it. It means “Thank you” in Lenape. What Bob wrote in the notebook was that she did not initially understand that (they did not have written language), but that now she does.

 

“She didn’t understand
the word. She does
now. You can come
if you are open.
She is glad you
like them.”
(She/he meant the flowers)

I think Bob must have explained it to her, and then she was glad that I liked them – the flowers. That is what the “thank you” was for. Then there was something else. There was a statement that I could “go”, if I am open. I think that I am. I am certainly mentally open to the idea – and I feel excited that I could go… and I don’t know what else I should do. I guess that you can think something, like you’re ready to go, and then when the actuality of it is presented to you; Whoa! It’s pretty scary. But I’ve thought a lot about it, and I think I could do it. I want to see it there – then.

It was interesting tonight at my meeting, the head of the group was talking about the creek levels and the river levels, and everyone agreed that they are dangerously low right now, and here it is only early summer. And then he made a comment about how they used to jump off the bridge into the creek, and I have heard that too. I nodded and thought about interjecting the story a couple of local brothers have told us about bridge jumping, but what I was really thinking was; if you only knew how big this creek once was. If you only knew.

And then the email I wrote to Bob Friday morning:
When I came up last night, I saw the note and the characters switched around on the dresser. I could have sworn I was going on an adventure last night, because when I first laid down in bed, I kept seeing this swirling all around my table and the radio. It was like liquid motion — if you were awake, I would have asked you if she was there. Something was going on; I’m just not sure what. This was around 1 am. I was torn between being scared and fascinated by it. I didn’t know whether I should keep my eyes open, or close them and see what happened. My heart was pounding at a greatly accelerated pace. I calmed myself down, and eventually, I fell asleep, and don’t even remember a dream at this point. When this was going on, I was seeing these kind of strange distant visions, but I also was not sure that they weren’t just light-plays in the room with shadows, etc. With this swirling motion that I seemed to be observing, I could (imagine?) that it was smoke from a fire, and I saw the light that might also have been a fire. Anyway, it was weird. Can you confirm if she was there then? And what was your interaction with her that included finding out about the “thank you” note?

Event #73: Friday, June 18, 2010

The emails below talk about something that happened Thursday night.

Bob: Btw, not sure if I dreamed it or it was “real” but I think Nuttah stopped in last night.

4 characters on dresser plus the "Teme" or wolves

Me: Oh yeah, she stopped in. She placed her “angel” self between you and me. She put the silver heart on the corner of the dresser. Put the carved stone in front of the turtle. And this is the funniest one — yesterday I took two of the earrings to wear – the two back legs. And she went in the closet and picked out 2 new different earrings to replace the missing back legs. I notice the earrings she picks for the legs always have some red or orange in them. So when I took off  the earrings I was wearing last night I laid them in front of her feet. So she was just “there”?, No communication?

Included is a picture I took of that “event”. There she is, seated between Bob & me; there is a heart in front of her, and the “Teme” (wolves) next to Bob. And below is her revision of the “turtle”. She has added a tiny silver charm to the center of the green turtle, and the hind legs are the new earrings that she used to replace the ones I wore that day. I circled one of those in yellow to emphasize it. The carved stone is in front of the daisy-chain “head”.

The revision of "The Turtle" -- Note the addition of a different set of "back-leg" earrings

Event #72: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Nothing happened all weekend. Saturday morning, I had put the flowers in a jar of water, and they sprang back, and as of this morning, there was still a little “Pooh” glass of wildflowers up there on the dresser. I also wrote her a note to say “Thank you”, only I wrote it in Lenape by using the translator on “talk-lenape.org”. It is: wanìshi. And I laid a wildflower identification book in front of the “vase” of flowers. It’s hard to know how to react to any of this, but I did think that appreciation was probably appropriate. So tonight, Bob called me and said there was a “change” on the bureau. And also that Joe was beside himself. I should mention that poor hapless Joe seems beside himself most of the time now – he just does not know what to make of any of this, and I picture him witnessing a couple earrings drifting across the room with nothing attached to them, or flowers coming in with no apparent support – and of course all the myriad of other things that have occurred for the past 6 months now. Although, I do wonder if she might actually be visible to animals. Bob has mentioned that he can only “sense” her presence here, but “there” he can see her. So he knows what she looks like. I was very anxious to see what the “change” was. “Does it involve the paper-dolls”? I had asked. “Yes”, he stated. “Is it interpretable”? I wondered… meaning can we figure out some kind of meaning from the arrangement on the dresser? And sure enough, you can. I will photograph it in the morning. My doll-character is moved all the way to the other side of the dresser, and I am positioned next to the “Pooh” vase of flowers. She, the angel, is sitting next to me, also in front of the flower-vase, but facing more towards Bob. I don’t mean Bob the paper-doll, but Bob if he was laying in the bed.

Nuttah acknowledges my thanks for the wildflowers

And across the wildflower book, are arranged the 2 hearts pointing toward Bob, as if she meant to say that both of us – me and her – have the same feeling about him. She’s always just used herself to represent that, putting the angel on the bureau and then a little trail of hearts pointing towards Bob in the bed. I have inserted a picture here; note the 2 hearts laid across the Wildflower book. You can see the little cup of wildflowers behind the “me” character and her “sitting-angel” character.

This all seems so strange to be writing about. I am floating between the world of this is not normal, and then writing the “events” as if it’s all just a matter of everyday life. It’s beginning to feel more like everyday life rather than bizarre and strange. And that by itself is kind of bizarre and strange, if one were to let themselves dwell on it, but… I guess I won’t. The paper dolls have proved to be interesting. I was not sure about that, and it took me awhile to bring that idea out, and actually do it – I actually did have thoughts of maybe NOT doing it because of what we may learn. I don’t know why – afraid perhaps of what we may learn. And then of course there was the possibility that she would just ignore them, or not understand them – but it has been really interesting. One other interesting thing. Bob made it clear to me this weekend that I would be going on one of the journeys at some point. That my experiences so far had been “partial”, but not an entire journey. She is afraid for me I think. Maybe I can’t make it. Maybe I won’t come back. Maybe I won’t be ABLE to – all of those thoughts have crossed my mind, along with “maybe it’s not real”, but that is the least prevalent of the thoughts. I have no idea at this point what “real” means anymore. I have to go to bed. I did not get much sleep last night, and I was pretty exhausted all day.

Event #71: Friday, June 11, 2010

This one was so touching to me that I was beside myself. As soon as I discovered what it was I went running downstairs to bring Bob up to see it. We’d come home Friday night after meeting for a beer after work. We were on our way out again to go visit Leann. It was kind of late for us to be heading out, as it’s not normal for us to do that, but it was Friday night after all, and only about 8:30 or so. So I’d gone upstairs to grab a jacket, and the first thing that I noticed was the family had been rearranged slightly. My character had been moved forward. I was now standing in front next to Nuttah, or at least next to the angel character that we have come to think of as Nuttah, because she often uses it to represent herself, like the placing of herself inside of the “jewelry-turtle”. (Which I have left there, by the way, it’s just too cute to disassemble and put away).

A picture of common "Fleabane"

But in front of my character I noticed something else. Something that I did not immediately recognize, and I had to go closely peering at it to see what it was, and immediately I understood. She had brought me flowers! They must have been there all day because they were somewhat shriveled at that point, but nevertheless, it was a tiny bouquet of wildflowers laid at my feet, next to Nuttah. And behind me, in front of Bob, is the large stone heart that I have added to the collection, and on top of that was her stone with the carvings. I was curious as to what the flowers were; more curious to find out if maybe they’d come from “her” time. Wouldn’t that be interesting? One I recognized right away as flea-bane, I’ve included a picture here of what flea-bane is, but it’s not the ones that she brought. It is growing all over our yard right now, and the one that grows here has a slightly pinkish hue. The other was a tiny yellow flower, and it had shriveled so much that I could not discern what it was. However, this morning (it is now Saturday)  it occurred to me to try to resurrect them in a glass of water, so that’s what I did, and they sprang back. I was able to look the yellow one up in one of my wildflower identification books.

Nuttah brings me flowers

I have inconclusively identified it as “Black Mustard”, a type of garlic mustard I believe, and we found an example of it growing right outside by our shed. It’s definitely the same flower, but the ID in my books was kind of inconclusive.

And here is a picture of the little scene from the dresser. To take this picture, I am standing above the scene shooting down onto it, and you can see the crumpled little pile of wildflowers in front of me. I have a pink arrow pointing at the pile. And there we are: the little paper doll family, goofy dolls with each of our faces glued on them. To the right are the “tëme”, the wolves. She has not done anything yet at all with Stewey and Kate.

Later Tuesday, June 8, 2010

This was Bob’s email to me about the words he had written:
Had a visit and a lesson last night. I spent time with Nuttah and Teme puppies walking a path along the creek. Wide open woods, very little under growth. She is, as best I can determine no more than 16. She was also still upset about our argument. It is important to her that we are together, as she put it, I think anyway, “in the long past and the long future”.

The long phrase has to do with forefathers, ancestors, history, something like that. She asked if I felt I could handle a “history”. I motioned and SPOKE that I will try a brief period.

The elder two were by the creek when we returned. They motioned a greeting and then went in the sweat lodge. I noticed it had more skins on it and the bark inside was large at the bottom and small at the top. Hard to see clearly. Very small amount was shown, as I requested. The crossing of this massive water was done in the winter when it froze, thousands of people were involved. Not all came and when crossed not all of them stayed together. Over time some split and headed south others went directly east. The way people survived conditions, and didn’t, makes you see how easy we have it now. I don’t know for certain where this took place, but I think it is Alaska and western Canada. You can’t imagine the beauty, but we wouldn’t last a week. It is remarkable how they traveled and adapted. Very determined resolute people. There was a reference to “others” by that I understood not Lenape, came by water routes. Not that I didn’t know this anyway, but if there was any doubt about the BS “Clovis first” belief there isn’t anymore. Getting too busy and too tired to write anymore. That was more or less it anyway, showing the hardship and determination. Many, many died. The meteor was mentioned in reference to me again. When leaving the old men said “I will see you again“. I understood that as clearly as I understand it now. Nuttah stayed outside the lodge this time. She seems so fragile at times, but she can’t be.

And my email back to Bob: Wow, this is exciting. I’m so curious about the history part, I wish I was seeing it too. I can’t even imagine what the scenery would have looked like.  Oh, by the way, another “literal” translation of “ilaonetu” is “warrior spirit“. And now that you gave me a frame of reference for that long word, here it is:

Lenape:    kikayuyëmënaninkahke
English:   our deceased ancestors or parents or forefathers

How do you get the spelling? Just by hearing it over and over? Also does her comment also mean that it is no accident that WE are together?

And Bob’s response:
The landscape, the flora and fauna are stunning, similar to now I guess, but no movie or pictures show what I am being shown; especially the animals. I suspect this is very long in the past. Much longer than our “experts” believe. I’ll bet there are major remains of settlements under the sea along all the coasts in Alaska, probably our entire coast line. You’ll get your chance to understand how I “get the spelling”. Yes, it is no accident we are together. Apparently a very long time.

And mine back to Bob: It would be interesting to find out how long ago this all was. Are you ever able to hover on something longer if you would want to? As in, “Let me see that again?” kind of thing? Or can you ask the elder gents questions? Off for my wobble with a wobbler. Missed it yesterday, he was so disappointed. Sat by the fence out there and stared in at me forlornly.

lapi knewëlch (can also mean “Goodbye“, but lit. is “I will see you again”)
ktaholeh

Event #70: Tuesday, June 8, 2010

A couple emails back and forth:
The room was nice and cool last night, slept well. I wish that was summer! Were the cutouts different than how you arranged them? She was in the room last night, but only briefly as far as I could discern. She did convey “history” and “ancestors” to me. That does not bode well.

And mine to Bob:
The cutouts were different. I had left us like this: We (you and me) were flanking the group, like in the original picture. So you were moved all the way to the left, next to me, the wolves next to you, and then her stone is moved to sit right in front of you. I guess you couldn’t see that last night. She is moved to where you saw her in front of me, and she is looking toward you. After I take a picture I’ll put everyone in yet a new grouping and shoot that before I leave. History and ancestors? Oh boy. What time was she there?

More Lenape language words in the notebook

Now me narrating: This morning, when I left, I set our family of paper dolls up again, and photographed the way I left them. But this time she did not touch them. I will learn from Bob tomorrow what actually happened tonight, because for the first time in a long time, there were again words in the notebook. The only two that I have been able to translate are one I think I have seen or heard before: “ilaonetu”, which is “comet or meteor”, and we have come across that before. Then a phrase that I can’t find any meaning or reference for:
Kikayuyemeuaninhakhe. Bob strung it all out as one word, but when I put it in the search engine, a suggested alternative was: kikay uyem euan in kah ke. The search results for the latter are mostly in gibberish, or reference downloadable play-lists or something that I won’t touch because I’m afraid of computer infections. Hopefully tomorrow Bob will shed some light on it, because I was unsuccessful in translating using the internet. Usually, he can at least provide a context or a guess based on the “conversation”.
And then “Lapi Newelch” which actually turns out to be spelled “lapi knewelch”, but the “k” cannot be heard. It means “I will see you again”. Here it is from the Talk-Lenape site:
Lenape: lapi knewëlch
English: I will see you again

I looked around for the stone, because it seemed to be missing and I was worried that it was gone. But it was on Bob’s bedside table; I had missed it in my excitement at seeing writing again for the first time in awhile.

Event #69: Monday, June 7, 2010

Before I left for work today, I went down to the creek and found 5 chunky stones for the paper doll collection. Sunday night, I’d come up and found the whole blown-over family turned upright, so I knew she had at least looked at them and might find them interesting to work with. Well, she did. I rubber-banded each of the 4 characters that represent each of us and the 2 wolves to a chunky stone so that the fans in the room wouldn’t continue to blow them around. They were all pretty secure. Then the way I left them was this: Bob was on the far right, I was on the far left, Kate was next to me and Stewey next to Bob. The wolves were on the left, and the sweat-lodge on the right. I left her turtle there from Thursday, and she (the angel) still sat in the middle of the turtle. At least that is the way it was when I left. Tonight, Bob is on the far left and the wolves are next to him. In front of him is the carved stone that Nuttah left earlier. She sits in front of me, looking towards the bed as usual. Kate is still on my right, and then Stewey is the far right. I don’t think anything else had changed. I will add a photo here in the morning. It’s not hot tonight, it’s actually cooled down to the 50’s again.

The "Family" has been rearranged

Saturday, June 5, 2010

This was my first attempt at the doll family. In reality, so that Nuttah can recognize us, I have used photographs of each of us on the faces of our characters. However, for the purposes of this blog, I am using a [okay, I know it’s ridiculous] smiley face. I’ll have to label us too, I think. So here we are on the dresser:

Our "Character" family... with sweat-lodge, and tëme (wolves)

And my email to Bob about it: I thought you were going to tell me about a visitor, because I found all our characters arranged differently, but perhaps it was you.

And Bob to me: Wasn’t me, I know she was there last night but only for a little while. What was rearranged? When did you notice? I only know she was there after midnight.

Our characters were all facing up. I had left them the way they blew over, but they were arranged all up. That was what made me notice them. I must fasten them to something that won’t blow around. Rubber band them to rock bases or something. I noticed when I came up around 10:30 or so.