The American Dream, Part I

Dusk was falling over the bayou and the critters were settling in for the night. Through the tree-filled wetlands, Steff could hear the sounds of the frogs, birds, and old man Fliray’s fiddle echoing out with the sound of an orchestra as the smell the Cupressaceae and Startina Alterna filled the air; and she thought with a smile, “No home wit-out deez tings”.

Steff’s mind drifted back in time to her Acadian/Cherokee born grandmother, E-Li-Si (as she called her), and how they sat on this very porch speaking of dreams.

When Steff was a little girl, E-Li-Si spoke of the many things nature had to offer. "Every ting a person desire is in dis backyard", E-Li-Si would teach, and at night, Destiny would speak to the listing hearts of little girls.

At this very moment, and in a flash, Steff realized that she was living her grandmother’s ‘American Dream’. As the pupil, Steff aligned herself through a life of nature’s study and her on-going immigration is spiritual, limited only by imagination. For Steff, the ‘American Dream’ is a reality without focus on the quest. It is much like Steff’s world, Nature filled.