About Wakinyan
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About the Home
Name Wakinayn
Our first summer here was punctuated by the prior winter. We had not had any snow that year and had, in fact, had no precipitation at our new house for almost nine months. Finally, in May, a strong thunderstorm was brewing. The air was full of electricity and we all were excited about witnessing our first rainstorm from our view.
Huddled under on of the porches, we waited and waited, as the intensity and potential built. Anxiously, we stepped out from under the porch cover, as many people do, to see if the rain was magically starting. High above us was a dot. It sort of looked like a child's balloon, but it wasn't moving. We watched it for a minute or so and then got some binoculars to view the mysterious object.
High above us, was a very large bird, mostly white with a black outline. Again, it just floated there. It did not move up, down, forward or backward or side-to-side. It remained motionless. Then, after a few minutes, a huge thunderclap came, and with that the rain started and the mystery bird disappeared.
The rain was a good soaking rain and heralded one of the wettest summers in decades for Ruidoso. We all, as a family and as a community, very grateful for the rains. However, we remain grateful also for the traditional sign of the native peoples for the Thunderbird. The great being that brings the rains.
For us, it is a special memory, one of so many we have had at this house and we hope you get to enjoy as we have the solitude and peacefulness of the place we now call Wakinyan.
"Wakinyan" is the Ojibwa Sioux word for Thunderbird. Its literal translation means 'sacred wings.'
