The Wheel Of Rocks : An Unexpected Spiritual Journey

Growing up in the Midwest, Judy Grathwohl never felt she belonged. 'I belong out west,' she remembers telling her father.

After joining the Sisters of St. Francis in the early 1960s and becoming Sister Marya, she came to realise that she craved a life beyond the traditional path of a Catholic nun.'Something other than dedicating my life to God was summoning me, some other life purpose,' she writes.

It took several years and several detours, but when Sister Marya eventually was assigned by her order to the Northwest, she felt an immediate connection to the place and to its Native people, the Crow and Northern Cheyenne.

Little by little, she was invited to become part of their communities, to share their customs and rituals, and eventually was adopted into one of their families.

She came to understand that the blending of Catholic teachings and Native traditions helped build within her a deeper respect for the Earth -this wheel of rocks - that she could not have done on her own.

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