Several years ago when I was just discovering the ways of the indigenous people of the southeastern forest I found a source in a most unexpected place: among the Catholic nuns of Kingstree.

Springbank is a plantation from the old South. After the South lost the war, many plantations fell into the hands of Northerners. As they came to the end of lifes they bequeathed this land for “good causes.”

One of their causes was the Catholic Church which was given the charge of community education and for many years this was the case. Springbank has been used as a rehabilitation center, community education and has now taken on the mantel of the Native American community.

Weekends are spent teaching local people in South Carolina the ways of the 1st Nation. I participated in these weekends.

Springbank was also a retirement retreat for nuns who spent their lives in service to the church. It was a welcome reprieve along a slow moving black water river in the Carolina swamp, a place for reflection.

I experienced my first Vision Quest at Springbank. The director of the retreat spent many hours on such quests in the southwestern desert. In Kingstree, I became acquainted with an animal spirit guide, a snake, not once but twice. It was a copperhead. But I lived to tell the tale.

The snake represents impulsive, primal energy, shrewdness, rebirth, transformation, initiation and wisdom. The following year my mother died. My life did change.

I no longer had my mother’s comfort and wisdom. I continue despite my loss, assured of earth’s longevity through generations.

Now I have come upon another animal spirit guide, a woodpecker, telling me to resolve a major question. But what?

An indigenous story tells us woodpeckers were once Indians who were transformed into birds, the woodpecker, forever looking for lost children in the hollow of trees.

Mothers search for children and eventually homes and livlihood were lost too because of continued disobedience.

Don’t ignore the urging of the woodpecker for the sake of lost children. The answer is there and success assured.

Hear the message and hasten to heed the urgency of the woodpecker.