In addition to Ultimate Journey, I'm reading "Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Sourcebook" about native American cosmology, in particular goddesses of the Southwest tribes.  One story from the Aztecs, pre-white man conquest, included a song that I thought some might be touched by as I was:

We only came to sleep
We only came to dream
It is not true, no it is not true
That we came to live on the earth
We are changed into the grass of springtime
Our hearts will grow again green
And they will open their petals
But our body is a rose tree
It puts forth flowers then withers.

Yes, this is a nice poem, and says 'it is not true' twice when refering to why we are here. It is making the point very strongly that the body is a temporary vehicle. To me, comparing us to grass is an interesting contrast to the image of a 'rose tree' because the grass is like one large communal entity and the 'rose tree' is imagined (by me) to be a more solitary, individual presence, one which is far less hardy and resilient than the grasses on which we all depend. The grasses of springtime are fresh and new, and this poem seems to tell me that there is a freshness, a newness, which is hidden behind the practicalities and the desires of our everyday lives. The song is a song of liberation, of joy and freedom, certainly not of sadness.

thanks for sharing