Meet Du’Tsu, the Author  (Elizabeth GM Richie)
One springtime, some 25 years ago,  I settled in to do a  Vision Quest on a quiet piece of forested land in the eastern hills of Ohio. I spent four days and three nights there, fasting, and  observing, with patient interest, myself and my surroundings. I prayed, conjectured, and slept on the ground.
One night, I’d snuggled into my sleeping bag as the darkness deepened. I heard a rustling near my head, and could not imagine what it was. With a flashlight I discovered a little spring frog busying herself with frog activities. She departed and then a half hour later, she returned and then again departed.
More time passed and the frog made a third appearance! But this time she was on top of an 18” high hay bale that lay right beside me! I was quite taken aback that she had been able to jump or climb that high. Never underestimate a frog!
Sitting in Circle after the Quest, I told of my frog encounter.  And my Medicine Elder, Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha, bestowed upon me the name “Spring Frog.” Or in Cherokee, Du’Tsu. (Pronunciations vary.) The name also came with a message: “She has come to the People to rebirth the purity and light of humankind. Her song is to comfort the Spirit within.”
I have several other names, but Du’Tsu has been a beacon for illuminating my purpose for coming to Earth. I use “Dusty” as an easier version of this Medicine name.
I hail from the lush hills of central Pennsylvania. I grew up on a street called The Circle, surrounded by meadows, cornfields, forests.  My Huck Finn friends and I loved to play in The Swamp, catching frogs; or we played baseball, or kick-the-can or in the “dirt pile.”  Or went swimming.
As fate would have it, I was accepted at Princeton University and have a 1975 Bachelor of Arts from the Religion Department. This was the road less traveled. I studied both Eastern and Western traditions and discovered, quite accidentally, Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy. So my senior thesis was titled An Argument for an Anthroposophical View of the Cosmos, Man and Christ.
After academia, I did a stint as a news reporter and then went off with my Beloved to the foothills of Appalachia. We lived six years in a stone root cellar without electricity or running water on 54 acres of steep forested hillsides. We built a house and raised a family. Love grew and Blessings abounded. And in the mid-1990’s, I became obsessed with finding a Medicine teacher, and I did.
In 2008, things changed dramatically and I returned to Pennsylvania to care for my parents. And the story goes on and it’s exciting and also well blessed though not without its challenges.
Currently, I am a volunteer for The Learning Center for Human Development, a non-profit ( https://lcfhd.org/ ) founded in 1959 by Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha, and  I’m devoted to our educational goals and  projects.

My website is wellnessandspirituality.net