In a time before time, the creator, who we will define here as everyone and everything, looked out into the world and saw nothing and no one and — it being a time before time — began to build the world on the back of a giant sea turtle.
The creator filled the world with light and shadow, mountains and valleys, oceans and islands, clouds and sky. Now the world was ready for life so we asked ourselves, what should we make?*

*We meaning everyone and everything

There are so many worlds to choose from — we will make an aquatic world with sea creatures that breathe water and a sky world with land creatures that breathe air. We will fill this world with color and sound, we will fill this world with movement and light, we will make it shine like a planet! And we thought about our planet for so long and all of the things that we were going to make that eventually we fell asleep and had a dream.
In our dream we saw many amazing things — animals walking all over the earth, birds flying through the sky, fish swimming in the sea and people speaking different languages.
When we awoke from the dream, we found ourselves lying between two
mountains – head on one peak, feet on the other — we looked down into the valley and saw a river — we watched water flow over rocks to a beaver dam made out of sticks — we saw the river knock it down and carry the sticks downstream. It was in this moment that we realized everything in our dream had come true. Everything we dream is real, we told ourselves.
It has been said among our people for generations: Do not question your dreams they are your creation.*

* Based on the creation story of the Abenaki (people of the dawn)

by Lea Lion