My Lady of the Woods: Part 2 Adopted into the Family

When I was little my cousin and I built a large tree house in the trees about two miles off in the woods beind his house in North Texas. When the evening arrived we finally talked our parents into letting us camp out in it on a hot summer day. I guess they thought that we would not endure the heat and would be traipsing in around supper time. Even though we were excited we finally managed to fall asleep. Later when the moon was full and bright we were awoken by the sound of leaves and sticks rustling and snapping. We looked at each other bright eyed and waiting, noticing that the sounds were getting louder. We were livid with the jitters when the sound stopped right under our tree house. After the hair on the back of our necks would not relax, we slowly took a peek down through the cracks in our floor. There, about a foot away from the bottom of our floor was a strangely looking human face with two shiny eyes glaring back at us.

I told that story for years as a kid with a creative imagination. But the story is the only untruth that you will find in My Lady of the Woods. The tree house was actually a cabin that never got finished. But I held that story dear for years after we stopped working on the cabin. It was exciting and I wanted it to be true after having seen a figure off in the distance looking back at my cousin and I. The figure barely moved about five hundred yards away, leaning up against a tree. That was my only encounter with the people from the woods until recently.

I called Thomas Hughes again a couple of days later and asked him how I should continue. It was a real eye opener to find out that a big female, who lives in the woods up where I live, knew who I was. As we spoke he began to slip into the language of the universe. It was a choppy, square sounding language yet very simple. He came back to me and said, “She says that you already know what to do and that she has been talking to you for the last two days.” The shock was gone but the excitement grew. I said, “I have been hearing some one calling me Cowboy in my head for the last two days, but I don't know what that means. I mean, I'm not a cowboy.” She chimed in with mind speak and told Thomas that she has been calling me Cowboy because of the neat things that I can make out of two sticks. I didn't understand what all that was about but later It hit me.

My wife, two daughters and I are outdoors people. We go hiking, camping, canoeing, swimming in lakes and rivers most of our spare time. On every outing we always pick up beaver chewed sticks. We walk with them and take them home and build things out of them. How did she know that? As I was working the next morning, my oldest daughter gave me a call. “Dad! We just had some pebbles tossed in front of us on the trail, we smiled at each other and pretended not to have heard and they tossed more even louder!” There was nobody else around. I had learned so much by now from Thomas that I knew that this was conformation for our families to have a meeting. My Lady of the woods had asked Thomas earlier to ask me how I would feel about my kids meeting her kids. Yes. The future was bright.

The next day my family and I went to the lake in order to make contact. I had no idea what to expect but I only knew that I wanted to experience it with my wife and two daughters. They were as excited as I was. Equipped with a big bag of sunflower seeds for a peace offering, we headed out to our swimming beach off the beaten path. As most people don't like to walk, we have never encountered anyone else; at least not the kind of people that we were used to meeting. As we were walking through the woods my wife reached down and picked up a beautiful rock. She said, “She left this for me.” “Who did?” I asked. “The lady of the woods. The lady of the woods left this just for me. I can still smell the palm of her hand.” I was as bright eyed as the kids. She left some sunflower seeds at the same spot and we continued. We were amazed to find a pyramid of small stones on the trail to the beach with a feather sticking straight up from them. My oldest daughter found it and said, “Look! Look what they left for us!” Our peace offering was met well. We left more sunflower seeds there too. As we got to the beach, there were two sticks there left in the sand. One was sticking in the ground with the fork sticking up. And the other was laying perfectly aligned with the direction of the fork. I thought that maybe a fisherman had left it there at first. But there are no fishermen where we go. We were puzzled by the sticks but enjoyed our swim.

Later that evening is when it all came together. I called Thomas and excitedly began to tell about the adventure. He began to slip off in to mind speak and began to talk to My Lady of the Woods, only this time I too was picking up the yes and no answers. My beginning stages of mind speak had begun. He told me that the stone was, in fact, left for my wife. And the feather was for all of us. She asked Thomas not to tell me her name because it was up to me to learn how to find out. Then she told Thomas and I the most beautiful thing. She said that she left the sticks there to protect us. Those sticks tell all other clans that me, my mate, and my two kids belong in her family now. She told me that because I had taken my family into the woods alone without guns or cameras showed trust.

This was as exciting as it was new so I asked Thomas to describe the rock, feathers, and sticks. It was going to be hard for him as he and I live on opposite sides of Texas from one another. He began to speak with My Lady of the Woods again in mind speak. He was talking to both of us at the same time. He listened to her and said, “ She said that the rock was left for your mate.” “I know that, Man. What did it look like?” I asked. “Wait... yes.... Okay... she said that the stone for your mate was an oval about two inches long and about an inch wide, off white, with a line through it. The feather was black with a hint of purple. And the two sticks were about two foot and one foot.” I was amazed! I said, “Okay, Okay...one of the sticks was a beaver stick. Ask her to tell you which one it was.” “She told me already. The beaver stick is the one that was lying on the ground.” Amazing! I ran in the house and asked my wife for the stone and my daughter for the feather. They were spot on! My daughter told me that the feather had lost some purple that was on it earlier. Wow! The sticks are still there today. We see them every three or four days when we go swimming.

I told Thomas that I had a confession to make. I would appreciate him telling me her reply about a lie I had created as a kid. I told him and her about the fictional tree house and that I was sorry for having made up such a story about her people. I told her that I was just so excited about meeting her people that I just couldn't contain myself. For the first time I heard more than just a yes and no answer. She said where we both heard, “It's okay, Cowboy. Good story!” And then we both heard her laugh.