One Hundred Cranes: Praying with the Chorus of Creation

William J. Fitzgerald's book "One Hundred Cranes: Praying with the Chorus of Creation" helped me understand my role in the Great Mystery and honor every living thing as teacher. As he says, we only have to be awake and aware. I was particularly touched by Fitzgerald's story of a special encounter at sunset where he and a friend saw a large snail, three deer among the yellow poppies, a falcon "posing" for a still picture, and a gray whale spouting effortlessly at Point Reyes near San Francisco. Sadly, two months later his friend was killed in an automobile accident. Fitzgerald said, "As I look back now on that special day we shared at the ocean, I see it as a grace filled moment. I realized that the creatures we met graced us by awakening us." Fitzgerald story reminded me of a similar experience that happened to me. A friend and I were celebrating her doctor's declaration that she was in remission from an aggressive form of breast cancer. Her doctor was shocked as he had not expected her to live because her mother had died at the same age from this cancer. While we picnicked on a grassy knoll in the sun I found a deer antler and gave it to her. She was thrilled. Sadly, she died 10 years later. However, during those 10 years she reminded me every year how much she appreciated and enjoyed the deer antler.It is impossible for me to read Fitzgerald's "Prayer of the Geese's Flight" without weeping. "...Like the wild geese, who break a path for each other, may I find companions for the journey, who form the symmetry of communal care, of friendship, not holding back or keeping me in line but helping me on. Like the wild geese, who know when to take flight, may I know the time of my seasons,sensitive to each proper passage way, the springtime of each day's new beginning.Like the wild geese, who take turns at the point of the "V", may I be willing to take my turn, being wise enough to know when to follow and to learn, and ready at the right moment to lead and move ahead. ...Like two wild geese falling out to companion a wounded fellow, may I console and be consoled, nurture and be nurtured, rather than rescue or be rescued....Like the wild geese, who write "V" in the sky, not in triumph over creatures, but as a signal of spring, may I break out of icy, rigid bonds that confine the spirit...." "One Hundred Cranes" is a gem that made me feel a sense of being more alive in a wondrous world.