The Healer Within. Mariena Foley

path alone. For the only way I can truly assist anyone else is to take on the lesson myself and be true to the contract I not only agreed to, but orchestrated. I am fortunate that I have great friends and family who walk a similar road beside me, and my gratitude for them never wanes. When you get right down to it, however, this contract, this purpose, is my own responsibility.

      A year or two into this, I was invited to a conference in Sedona, Arizona. By that stage I was tormented by the choices I had before me. Honestly, I was about to walk away from this work. I’d absolutely had enough of the small-minded, unethical and unprofessional behaviour of the people I was trying to work with. My business manager, Helen (very professional and great friend), was out shopping (while I was working!) when a man, a total stranger walked up to her and said, “I need to meet your friend.”

      Helen knew me well, had walked beside me for some time, and replied, “That would be Mel.” By this stage, Helen was used to the amazing adventure that is my life.

      He was Native American and he offered to take us into the Grand Canyon, to places that the general public wasn’t able to access. Helen arranged our schedule to enable us to go with him. It meant missing a crucial day of the conference (“It’s alright, Mel. You’re not presenting on that day.”) and I was expected to attend a dinner that evening, so I couldn’t believe she had arranged this. And yet we went.

      Asked to meet him at 6:45 am in the hotel foyer, I was at the desk telling the staff that if anyone asked where I was, they should say they didn’t know, when I heard Helen greeting someone. I turned around and looked at this man for the first time, and fell back a couple of steps. I didn’t know who he was but I could feel how big he was. His presence was extraordinary. His peace was palpable. He introduced himself as Two Bears.

      Helen had told me very little of the man who was taking us on this trip, so naturally I assumed he was our tour guide. A man of integrity (a hard thing to find for me at the time) with a great sense of humour, my god he made me laugh; but more than that, Two Bears had a calm that radiated wisdom. This, amid all his jokes and ironic anecdotes! But in his presence all at once you felt totally humbled and yet secure in an embrace, a blissful, soulful embrace, warm, effortless and comfortable. Helen had discovered quite a tour guide!

      Loading us into his four-wheel drive (with me thinking, You’d think he’d keep it cleaner for the tourists), the journey began to the canyon. And oh, what a journey! Nonstop chatter bounced between the two of us and enormous laughter echoed off the metal shell in which we travelled. Every time we hit a bump in the road, Two Bears would break seamlessly into chant then re-enter whatever he was chatting about.

      A colourful two hours later, we turned and crossed a boarder of sorts that had me perplexed, then entered what I can only sadly describe as a “poor” town. Poor financially, but rich, so rich in people.

      We entered the Hualapai community and were welcomed openly, warmly, on a day that was celebration. Two Bears was welcomed reverently (He’s such a good tour guide, I thought) and chatted with those who seemed “in charge“. We were then guests at a parade for which the entire community came out. Tiny little dirt dancers kicking the dust up, with drums and music and chanting, children all playing their parts, and families all coming together. Beautiful. No-one wondered, stared, or asked what the blonde was doing in amongst it. I was readily welcomed. So of course I joined in.

      We were farewelled with blessings as Two Bears then steered the four-wheel drive down what I was pretty sure was a goat track and we descended deeper into the canyon. I had handed myself to spirit, I must say, for I was fairly sure, travelling most of the trip bumping sideways down non-existent tracks, that we wouldn’t be leaving the canyon. My “tour guide” then pulled the car over. Towering walls of rock were around us and with tourist delight, I asked, “Is this it? Are we here?”

      “We have stopped so that you understand…” The demeanour of my tour guide had new weight. He gently took me by the shoulders and turned me to face a cliff face. I fell to my knees as the tears fell from my eyes, looking upon the many, many anguished faces.

      “This is the Crying Wall of the Hualapai…” he began in explanation.

      To my jumbled body’s amazement, sometime later we arrived on the banks of the milky and hallowed Colorado River. Having an honoured and delicious lunch with Noni (the keeper of the canyon), I was ready to kick back in gratitude (that I was still alive) and relax, when Two Bears turned to me and said, “You need to tell me about the work you are doing.”

      Two Bears, as it turned out, was a Sioux holy man. On this day he brought it all home to me, as I so desperately needed it to be. Upon his request I became his tour guide as I shared the journey I was now upon—”I work in healing…”—the challenges I faced, the incredible healings that were only becoming more amazing, the demand for me to teach and to share, and the dark night I was presently in.

      “I was guided to bring you to this place. Look across the river.” On the other side of the river was a tall, sheer rock face and peaked upon it a huge rock formation, like a sculpture of a woman’s face, her face to the sky, her mouth in silent song, her hair cascading down the cliff. “This is the Guardian Maiden. She sings to Father Sky.” He turned to me. “Do you know where the Sioux come from?” I shook my head as I looked onward. He gently turned my face to his. “We come from the stars…”

      He shared his story, personably, genuinely, before he asked me to work on him.

      On this bright and brilliant day, I found myself doing a healing session on a Native American (he told me I could call him an Indian) holy man on the banks of the Colorado River in the middle of the Grand Canyon, our awning the incredible red rock grace known as the Guardian Maiden. Two Bears taught and shared so much, because it was what we were there, together, for; the one day in this life where he would play the role he had determined to play. The one day I would play my own for him. At the end of the day, the four-wheel drive slid sideways into the hotel in a cloud of desert dust. As we regretfully parted amid huge hugs and many blessings, he turned and imparted the wisdom he was there for.

      “Melissa. Walk your path, and walk it true.” Then turned and walked away.

      And I went to the dinner that night committed, come what may, to the task I am here for.

      Allow me to share the wisdom I received with you.

       Above all else walk your path, and walk it true. For it will benefit others even more, as well as benefit you. Seek and live by your own truth as you know it. Know your heart, your truth, and then whatever the situation, you will know: If it doesn’t ring true, it isn’t.