The Step to A New Life

My Anasazi Blanket
As some of you may know, I used to work at the Anasazi Foundation, a wilderness therapy program for at-risk youth. After five years and many memorable experiences, Anasazi had become my home away from home.

When you first begin at Anasazi (either as an employee or as a client) you participate in what is called a "blanket stepping."

Two blankets, one old and one new, are placed upon the earth. A SageWalker sits upon the old blanket and invites the other to sit across from them.

On the old blanket, many sacred things are discussed, among them are the principles of forward and backward walking and an invitation to move forward.

At it's core, walking forward is to make good choices that encourage us to love others and to have a heart at peace. Walking backwards is to make wrong choices that fill us with enmity and encourage a heart at war.

When we symbolically leave things behind on the old blanket, we then step onto the new blanket, symbolic of our step to a new life.

Not long after I left Anasazi, I married my wife, Kim. I've come to realize that my departure from Anasazi has been a symbolic and literal step to a new life. I've learned that part of moving forward is to not only leave behind negative things, but to know when to move on from good things to fulfill greater things.

Shortly before the wedding ceremony, I received a wedding gift from Anasazi.

It was a blanket.

The card that came with the blanket read, in part:
A blanket wraps us in warm protection at our earthly birth, a blanket covers and wraps us throughout our lives. Blankets symbolize many things in life. 
For us, the blanket symbolizes our Belonging Place among our people--tied together to others, belong to them and they to us. 
We give you, Seth and Kimberly, this blanket in love and with great gratitude for all that you are and all you do. You both have special Belonging places because you have wrapped others in love and service. May our Creator bless this your sacred New Beginning you are going to walk together into eternity. 
Love, Anasazi Foundation and the Sanchez Tribe.
To all who are reading this, I invite you to find a new beginning of your own and to walk forward.