The Hymn of Featherlight

Once in the land of the Hawk, there lived a young native Indian woman. Her name was Feather light. She grew up with her people who loved horses. She was free-spirited, nobody could touch her soul. She dreamt of traveling far, running away on the back of her horse, over the prairies, with the smell of summer burned grass in her nose. She lost herself in the wide landscapes of Mexico, this country infused with love.

She didn't want to have anything to do with men, she didn't trust them, they were cowards in her eyes. Only the fire of a horse could enchant her. The reason was her father: he threw her out of her house. "You're not worth to be my daughter, if no man can conquer your soul". But Featherlight didn't care. She flew on the back of her horse and dwelled from deserts to mountains with the song of her ancestors singing in her heart: "I don't want any chains on me, they lock me up. I only want the fire of a horse. Because the Wind is my father and Earth is my mother. My child will be your soul and the spirit of my dreams and longing for love."

Featherlight was a beautiful, proud and powerful woman, stirring the head of many men, but no one could make her smile when she didn't want to. No one could tempt her and her answers could be ice cold. She could hit like a hammer, especially towards men who thought less of a woman. And people were apprehensive. It was because of her inner fire and genuity that they loved her. You could burn your eyes when you saw her, but it didn't touch her. There was only a smile on her face when she saw her horse. No one could touch her, because she hit back, harder than a hammer of steel.

But in the night she was scared. She missed her father, because he wasn't there. She remembered the nights when he was drunk again and hit the tears out of her face. He blamed her for his bitter life. He hated the innocence of his child. But she needed his smile, to be hold in his arms like a little girl who missed her mother's love, because she died when Featherlight was born. When she looked at him, she saw a reflection of her own sorrow; when she cried the same tears that rolled down his face. Why couldn't he feel the love she felt for him? When she grew older, she gave up. She found consolation in the glance of her horse. It was at that moment she decided never to be bound and no man would ever earn her trust. She didn't want her children to undergo the same fate. When she looked in the eyes of her horse, she found a sadness there. When she cried lonely tears, his nose touched her face. She ran away with her tears on the back of her horse. Because it hurts when someone is feeling lonely.

During her travels Featherlight met many women who suffered the same faith. She realised this was her task: "No one will hold me back from living the life I choose; no one will hold me back from the road I want to walk on. Maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong, but give me a chance. Maybe you agree or maybe you don't, but give me freedom for my inner soul, away from the chains you put on me. No one will hold me back from seeing the world with my own eyes, from tackling my own life my way. I want to set free my inner soul from the chains of this mortal life. No one will hold me back from standing in my own strength and claiming what every living creature on this Earth deserves: self-determination, open-minded self-development of body and soul. I want to be light as a feather, as my name is Featherlight." And this was the message she brought to everyone crossing her path.

When she grew older, Featherlight felt the finitude of her existence and she focused her gaze on the horizon. She had almost reached the core of her existence: the realisation that life is one continuum and that love and compassion are its driving forces. But there was one loose thread: her first sorrow. The message reached her that her father had died. On his body they found a picture of her, which he carried always with him. They told her he regretted what he had done and from that day he had never touched one drop of alcohol again. He loved his daughter and understood she had to go her own way, that a child has to choose for herself, but he himself was unable to reach beyond his own sorrow and the boundaries of his own existence. Therefore she carried his ashes with her beyond the horizons. She found peace with her own grief. With her only true friend, her horse, she undertook her last journey beyond the horizon. She disappeared in the light of the setting sun.

It is said that her story isn't finished yet and that she will return from the horizon. And people will sing the hymn of Featherlight, light as a feather. They will call her true name: Inti Huayra.