Eternal toil

The young ones were running around like crazy again, harassing the dogs and the women working. The old chief smiled to himself, all the men were out on a hunting party, and the children were full of mischief. Soon, the chief knew, the children would wear thin the patience of those going about day-to-day life. Then there would be lots of scolding and hurt feelings.
To stop this from happening, the chief called for the children to come to him. "Come," he called, "you spirits of the wind, come and sit for a minute by my fire. Come and let me tell you of a story." The children slowed their rambunctious play and made their way to the chief's fire. He might be old, but he still commanded the respect of all the tribe.
"Gather round, and let me tell you a tale." the chief began.
"What kind of tale?" asked young Bees in Flight.
"oh, a tale of great importance," replied Winter's snowfall, the old chief.
"Tell us a tale about Che'Kahn, the mighty Bear warrior, Winter's snowfall," begged little Beaver's tail.
"No, I am going to tell you the tale of Arisk." Winter's snowfall stated.
"Arisk was a young brave at the start of our story. Arisk was normal in all ways. He could hunt with the best of the hunters, he had killed many Deer and Bear. But he was not the best of hunters. He had participated in many was raids against the Navajo, but he wasn't the greatest of warriors. When the elders sat to discuss the weighty matters of the nation, Arisk would sit with them and smoke the pipe and make many good suggestions, but he wasn't not one of the respected elders. Arisk was good at many things, yet he was never the best at anything. Because he couldn't excel at any one thing, he had trouble with the ladies of the tribe. He always found himself rejected and therefore alone.
This bothered Arisk greatly and finally, one day, Arisk approached the wisest and eldest of elders, Great White Elk. 'Great White Elk,' Arisk began, 'I am a man of the tribe, yet I am not great at any one thing. The women of the tribe look past me because I am not man enough to stand out, I haven't found any way to gain my man name.' For it was true, Arisk still bore the name of youth, haven't attained his man name.
Great White Elk thought for a long minute. Finally, slowly, he spoke. "If you want to know what you are great at, you must go out into the wilderness and make a sacrifice to the Ancestors. Ask them to show you your inner strength. Then you will know what you are great at."
Arisk nodded, eager to be on his way, and thanked Great White Elk. As fast as he could, Arisk gathered his belongings and headed out into the wilderness. He would make a sacrifice to the Ancestors, and they would bless him with a gift. Then he would be the greatest.
For two days, Arisk traveled deeper into the desert searching for that right place. Finally feeling like he had found it, Arisk went in search of a goat to make a sacrifice of. Soon, the ceremony complete, Arisk sat back and waited for the voice of the Ancestors to speak to him and give him his gift. Arisk waited, and waited and waited. Time passed and Arisk started to get hungry and tired. But he was afraid of moving lest he anger the Ancestors and missed the gift they were bringing him. Hours passed, day faded into night, and still Arisk sat and waited.
Finally, as Arisk was falling into a trance, a voice spoke softly. "Arisk, why are you here?"
Stirring, Arisk replied, "I am here for my gift, the gift that will make me the greatest."
Moments passed with no reply. Arisk was afraid that he had imagined the voice after all. Then it came again, soft as before, "And then what, once you have your gift, then what will you do?"
Arisk replied quickly, without hesitation, "I will be able to go back to the tribe and become a man and take my bride. I will be a member of the tribe and help provide for my brethren."
The silence stretched even longer this time. Arisk was starting to get uncomfortable. Maybe he had angered the voice by not being great enough. After what seemed an eternity, the voice gave it's final instructions. "Only a true Sioux can be the greatest. You must stay here and grow a crop of corn before we will give you your gift, Arisk. Once you have grown the corn, we will come back and give you your gift."
And with that there was a flash and the voice was gone. At Arisk's feet was a leather skin full of corn seeds. Arisk looked around and wondered how he would ever grow corn in this arid desert. The voice must be insane. But Arisk knew that if he left, there wouldn't be any gift for him. And without that gift of greatness, Arisk couldn't return to his tribe. So Arisk started searching for some sort of water. Soon he found a grouping of brush, a good sign that there was some sort of underground water nearby. Laboriously, and with a great deal of sweat, Arisk managed to get the water flowing out of the ground, then he proceeded to dig trenches to hydrate the ground. Then he planted the seeds. Knowing the seeds wouldn't grow overnight, Arisk went about setting up shelter so he could tend his crops.
Days turned into weeks, and turned into months, but with care and alertness, Arisk managed to bring a crop of corn into this work. Finally with the corn harvested, Arisk sat down and called to the voice once more. Nothing happened. Arisk called louder, more incessantly, with the same outcome. No one responded, no voice came, no gift. Nothing.
Arisk was disgusted, all this time working with corn, planting it, weeding the ground, tending the water, making sure that the corn had the right environment to grow.  And this is how the Ancestors repaid him, with silence? Arisk was mad. He got up to leave when he heard the voice. "Oh, so quick to leave are we? Now at the end?"
Arisk froze. The Ancestors were here, they had kept their word afterall. Arisk was silent. Choosing his words with care, Arisk spoke, "I planted the corn as you asked, I tended it and then harvested it. I did everything in my power to do as you asked, can I now have my gift, the one that will make me great?"
The voice laughed a little, then replied, "you have always had your gift, you just needed to learn to be patient so you could find it.""
Winter's snowfall was silent for a moment. The young children looked around in puzzlement. This story hadn't made much sense. The old chief spoke once more, "You see children, Arisk had everything he already needed to be great within him. But by trying too hard and looking in the wrong places for greatness, Arisk could never see it. It was only once he became patient and willing to tend something to fruition that he actually discovered the greatness in himself."
The look of understanding dotted the faces of the children. Most had gotten the message, the other children were mulling it over, but Winter's snowfall felt they would eventually get it. Smiling, he look around. The women going about their tasks were gone now, onto another task. The children were safe to play again without scoldings. "Go, children, go play and look for the greatness inside you."
And with a squeal of pleasure, the children ran back out into the field.
Winter's snowfall smiled to himself. "Oh the joys of being a child," he thought.