Leaving the lake

-Tewa

NOTES: Leaving the lake is based on a creation legend that is told to Tewa children so they may learn about their identity as Tewa. This is just a part of the overall legend that tells how the journey towards life on earth was started. In reflecting on it, we see that people (us) are not the masters of the earth but have been given our identity and being through our efforts to be 'brought out from the darkness'. In the story, the basis of all ordinary human life is not ordinary at all and evidence of that is all around us. "If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence." George Elliot

These mothers asked one of the men present to go forth and explore

the way by which the people might leave the lake.