Light.
The horizon expanded.
The light was bright beyond belief.
And she squinted,
Overwhelmed by the daily chores.
Overwhelmed by the routines,
The never-ending demands.
She collapsed over her own steering wheel.
No more.
She needed a break.
She looked to her left.
There was the forest,
Calling her name.
The landscape morphed there,
Suddenly erupting into luscious greens and reverberating textures.
A breeze was calling her,
Softly,
Gently,
To surrender right there.
She decided to leave her car and follow the call.
Decided to rise to the occasion.
To walk to that piece of forest that was reaching out to her.
It seemed never-ending.
The forest expanded into the mysteries of the earth.
Into the deep caverns of life.
Into the caverns before time,
Where wisdom resides in the center of being.
She felt her own heartbeat slowing.
The trees seemed to be humming a welcome.
The branches reaching out.
The leaves kissing her soul.
In the midst of that,
A thought popped up out of nowhere.
A thought popped up.
Out of nowhere,
It seemed.
And developed into a fast-paced action flick.
She was the main character.
She was now chasing her toddler,
Breathless at the pain he may incur to himself.
He screeched down the hill of her imagination.
On a bike,
Big enough to be ridden by an adult.
Like a giant weapon,
It was racing down the hill.
Racing with her child.
She was sweating now.
Just like that.
Her heartbeat resounding in her head.
She took a deep breath and let the panic move to and fro.
Let it overwhelm her.
And transfixed,
She watched the full movie right then and there.
Frozen.
Finally,
There was a breeze.
The spell broke,
Just like that.
She came to,
As she observed an ant trying to climb up a tree nearby.
She smiled.
That ant was followed by an army of others,
Climbing right over their comrades.
It was adamant about its journey.
People must think her to be odd.
Standing like that,
In the middle of nowhere.
In the street,
Almost.
Looking at her,
First frozen,
And then smiling at an ant.
The pull of home.
The pull of being needed.
Being utterly devoid of needs herself.
The mommy machine.
The pull.
She stood there,
And for a minute,
Remembered the qualified sitter.
The cell phone.
The husband.
She was going to answer the call of the forest instead.
Just for once.
Just to see what would happen.
She locked the car,
And felt her footsteps.
She heard their sound change,
As she treaded from asphalt to forest floor.
Path.
Roots.
Earth.
The scent of being reborn.
There,
In the midst of a clearing,
Was a stone.
Larger than a pebble.
Smaller than a boulder.
A tree next to it.
She could lean against it.
Into it.
She felt it shake,
And look down.
Nothing.
Another horror movie in the making.
She relaxed back into the trunk,
And felt her fragments reassemble,
One by one.
There,
She was mother.
There,
She was wife.
There,
She was friend.
Daughter.
Lover.
Broken.
Reassembled.
Many times over.
She could see herself in the fragments.
Whole.
The image was only partially fluid,
But she felt she was missing a chunk.
Then,
Somehow,
She felt herself sinking into the forest floor.
As the sounds of the forest changed from birds to leaves brushing the wind,
To the sound of the sun warming the heart.
The center of the forest.
It was all there.
And she sank further.
The mulch,
Under her feet,
Opened up and welcomed her into the very core of her being.
The opening of the mouth,
Of tracks and mysteries.
Tunnels and core.
She watched the light dim around her as she entered the mouth of a giant cave.
And darkness overcame her.
Her senses right then,
Acutely aware of every movement around her.
She had read of caves like these before.
Legend had it that people did not always come back from them.
The sound of music emerged at the far end.
Somewhere.
The flute.
Ever so light.
Ever so inviting.
She felt her way through the rocks.
She felt the wet sweat of the pulsing walls of stone.
She could only listen to her own body speak through itself.
Which way should she turn?
Which way would she stumble?
Or encounter a dead end.
Every hair on her body standing like antenna.
Ready to take in the least movement.
The least change.
The tension of her muscles ready to catapult her to some safety if need be.
Out of nowhere,
The image of herself dying.
Lost in an underground tunnel.
Found years later as debris.
A pile of bones.
Years later,
In some excavation procedure.
And the next horror flick was being intrusively played right in front of her.
Mixing bones,
Blood,
And fear.
She was angry.
How dare this happen?
How dare that film come up now?
Her pulse was racing.
She felt a scream contract her throat.
And she stopped breathing altogether.
Then she heard a drop.
Plop.
Then another.
Plop.
Nothing was happening other than the fact that the cave was dripping.
Plop.
In its own rhythm.
The cave was dripping.
The music,
So light.
Like an army of tiny effervescent notes tickling her heart.
She was with her pulse now.
Letting it flow with the dripping.
Then,
With her own slowing breath.
The music carrying her forward.
Floating.
Floating above the floor of the cave.
No longer slippery.
But smooth and guiding.
In the space in front of her.
The opal shone iridescent.
Fiery.
Reverberating.
Reflecting back at her.
The symphony of light carried deep within her heart.
She stood there.
Transfixed in the darkness.
Enveloped by the shadows.
Aware of the deep connection.
The opal threw its fire at the walls like paint.
It was dancing.
Dancing in some light pattern of the stars.
Whispering of possibilities.
Openings.
And ways to grow out.
And through the pulls of the horror flicks.
And the expectations.
Listening back to the source of spaciousness.
Within her own self.
She breathed in the cosmos.
And let the stars carry her.
