What began as a regular ol’ healing session with a powerhouse in bloom on June 13 has turned into a heart- and spirit-guided journey of epic proportions for a fractured family and the Navajo Nation. Although the story began in March 1971, my involvement didn’t begin until June 2014. I had been invited by someone to bring Love on Fire to Las Vegas after doing the same in San Francisco. During the event I met a woman whose own gift was a beacon for spirits. Two days later we spent time one-on-one. During the fantastical session (that included my first visitation of the Hindu snake goddess Manasa), I asked her who the Native American presence with her. She said, “Oh, that’s my ex-husband.” I said, “Nope. This isn’t him. I’m feeling someone that is no longer alive in the breathing sense.” Her reply was, “Oh. That’s his guardian.” I said, “I think we need to meet.” She: “That’s what he said.”
And so it began.
Being in the knowing is a strange space for many to grasp (it really is hard to hold onto) or understand but it’s where I live. Although some describe it as ‘walking in two worlds’–that of the earthly, tangible & visible and that of the invisible & spirit–I actually don’t. I live in this space knowing that ‘no separation’ is an actuality and not defined by human limitations of universal ‘laws’, bureaucracies, and other interesting designs.
This dance I do with all things is one that includes clear, though not necessarily understood, open communication. And life unfolds as I move–often without trust or faith–in a unique partnership.
When I left Texas in late May, I knew I would be going back through the Navajo Nation. I didn’t know why but I knew it would be soon. So, when the client said, “That’s what he said” I followed with, “Is he Navajo?” Guess what the answer was.
When I left Las Vegas to drive back to Virginia, I had no idea how I was going to get back there. And also knew it didn’t matter, that it was just going to happen. One week later I bought a round-trip plane ticket. Five days before I left I didn’t know how I was going to get from the airport to where I was staying, much less to the Navajo reservation, but everything that I identified as a potential impediment dissolved.
Two weeks later, I boarded a plane still not knowing exactly what was going to play out. I knew there was a boy. The day after I got there, I knew that boy was a man and that man was the one with whom I’d only had one telephone conversation. Two days later, I actually met him for the first time and said, “I’ve been known by many names over many lifetimes. This time I go by the name Ingrid Oliphant and I am here to bring you home.”
“Okay.” I mean, hello. A perfectly good stranger shows up in your world and says she’s going to change your life and you say, “Okay”? And he did. With trust in spite of fear and standing in his own knowing, he could also say, “I thought something like this was going to happen. I was actually prepared to quit my job to go with you.” A good thing since I was prepared to ask him to do so!)
The next day we were on the road to the Navajo Reservation. Within thirty-six hours of arriving and three heart-guided conversations with other Navajo women, we located his birth mother. Although she didn’t tell us at the time what was going through her own mind and heart, I knew we’d found her. She confirmed that on Monday, July 21, 2014. Forty-three years and four months. Waiting, wanting, hoping, praying.
Forty-three years waiting to be seen, be recognized, be heard, be loved. Forty-three years for a fractured family to be brought together. Forty-three years for man-child with great power & purpose, to be returned home.
There are more subtle aspects to this story to be shared later. They relate to a larger purpose, teaching the knowing, the interrelatedness of my experiences with the First Nations peoples and my own reunion with the nature of the universe.
However, I’ll leave it here for now and with this: When I stand in my truth and follow my heart, magic happens. Magic. Every. Time. When you & I enter into partnership together? Magic beyond measure.
Because I just know.