is this true? a friend sent it to me. maybe one of my native american, internet-using friends will tell me if it's true or not :)

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage? His dad takes him into the forest - blindfolded -and leaves him.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not take off the blindfold until the ray of sun shines through it. He is all by himself. He cannot cry out for help to anyone.

Once he survives the night he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience. Each lad must come into his own manhood.

The boy was terrified. He could hear all kinds of noise. Beasts were all around him. Maybe even some human would hurt him. The wind blew the grass and and it shook his stump.

But he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It was the only way he could become a man.

Finally, after a horrific night, the sound of the night disappeared. He could feel the warmth of the sun. He removed his blindfold.

It was then that he saw his father - sitting on the stump next to him - on watch the entire night.

We are never alone. Even when we do not know it, our Father is protecting us. He is sitting on the stump beside us.
All we have to do is take off our blindfolds.