MY HANDPRINT

By Dennis Lantz I couldn’t find it. The other day I went to look for my vision quest circle and it has disappeared into the ever-changing forest. I mean, I know where it was… and I am certain I walked through it, but nothing appeared the same. The A-frame structure was quite decayed twenty-five years ago, so I didn’t expect to locate that, but I figured I would be able to see familiar tree patterns or use the dump along the creek bank as an indicator. It was just a stone throw from my circle and had been part of the scenery for as long as I could remember. Well, at some point the stream washed out and all remnants of the junk are gone. I did find an old tire in the general area. While I can’t say that it is the same one I sat upon during the lightning storm, I also can’t say it isn’t. I remember putting that one back on the dump.   While re-reading the entries from my vision quest, I felt the tug of the spirit. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve regressed. My spiritual life h...

By Dennis Lantz   Vision quests are personal. One is apt to encounter boredom, fear, doubt, physical and emotional discomfort, hunger and pesky nuisances like mosquitoes, bees, thunderstorms, cold and restlessness. I took my pen and notebook because I believed that inspiration would come through writing. But most of it was the result of observation. The Hogan Journal contains twenty-two pages of original vision quest material. In this blog I’ve cut that nearly in half. It’s still longer than most of my entries… and it is personally revealing. I am not concerned that you may think of me differently. I was weak, hungry and weary. That is an explanation, not an excuse. Likely you are stronger; more sure of yourself. It was also twenty-five years ago. I’d like to think I am more courageous now. 6/21-24/1995: THE QUEST I am here in my circle. The quest has begun. My circle, though I didn’t know it until after I had sat here about half an hour, has an old decomposing A-fra...

By Dennis Lantz 6/15/2020 – Going on a vision quest was not my idea. I did it reluctantly. It was the best thing I did all summer. Looking back at the summer of 1995, those three days of isolation were, without question, the most difficult undertaking of my life up until that time. Over a quarter of the pages in my Hogan journal were written during the vision quest and several more dealt with the preparation and aftermath. I learned an immense amount about myself… not all of it good. I was filled with doubt and fear. My confidence level was not high. To be honest, I was afraid that God would actually speak to me and I wasn’t ready for that.   Mark talked about taking a ‘quest’ right from the moment we moved into the hogan, but I did not share his enthusiasm for such an adventure. I didn’t really know what a quest was or what to expect. I’d read fictional accounts of Native American youth going into the wild to ‘find their name’ or to determine their path in life. I figure...