I’itoi Ki

Listen, I’m no expert trying to impart any wisdom here. I’m just in love.

The Man in the Maze is an emblem of the Tohono O’odham Nation of Southern Arizona (formerly known as the Papago Indians). The man is I’itoi, a god who lives in a cave below Baboquivari Peak, a sacred place within the territory of the TO Nation where the Creator lives. This labyrinth is believed by the Akimel O’odham (River People) and Tohono O’odham (TO) (Desert People) to be the maze of life - the complicated and difficult way a person must walk to find happiness and peace at the center. (Some people think the center is death, and some people think I’itoi is exiting the maze, going from darkness to light, but that’s not the TO belief. He is entering, going through the physical world, to find his own soul, back to Creator. I’itoi means Creator, and Ki means house. So to the Creator’s house.)

Unrelated or related, I discovered Thomas Merton two years ago (I’m slow) and have these words from True Solitude on all my desks: “I ought to know by now that God uses everything that happens as a means to lead me into solitude. Every creature that enters my life, every instant of my days, will be designed to wound me with the realization of the world’s insufficiency, until I become so detached that I will be able to find God alone in everything. Only then will all things bring me joy.”

I’m trying. Again. And again. I’itoi Ki.