A Blessing

After the final candle is lit, I fall down to my knees. Eyes closed, back and forth, swaying to the sound of the chant. Gripped by the sensation of falling, I am steel and the chant continues. I reach the bottom, there is no ground to rise up and meet me, but I am standing, just the same. A soft glow starts at the edge of vision and grows into many small soft lights, like candles along a path. The soft lights float above the floor as if alive and unattached to any space, floating above the gentle mist. I am walking, almost upon the mist, though it feels like soft grass, in my toes. The lights lead me through a thicker mist that twists and forms into a black and dark forest, but between the lights is safety, and I am confident that here nothing can escape, nothing can touch me, unless I permiss it. The lights are beginning to get excited, they move and twist, they separate as though they need room to convulse, and dance, as unattached lights should. I feel a rhythm or a drum start to beat, from deep within my root, deeper than there seems space for. So my feet move, and I raise my arms, and ecstatic dance that I have never learned but always known. Even the dark misty trees sway and convulse to the new rhythm. I am not alone in my wild exuberance either, there are others here entranced by this strange music as well. There is one here, especially graceful as well, her exceptional elegance eclipsed only by her fierce strength.  The dance now centers around her, it is suddenly wilder, and more erratic, but no one misses a step, no one is felled by the movements. As we all move inexorably towards the dances climax, the dark mist enters the circle surrounding us all, and seems to permeate us weaving itself within the dance, creating  a barrier sealing us in. Closer, closer, until we all seem to be ready to collide, but even our fingertips never seem to touch.

She stops suddenly, looking straight at me, her gaze locked upon my own eyes, and abruptly all those dancing with me are me, merged into one, whole again. “Child, you asked for protection, for a blessing, and now you have it.” Her voice is melodic but strong, though it is shouted and whispered and sung all at once. “I have multiplied your spirit, and lent you my shield, I give you my sword as well, just know when to leave it sheathed. Go now and know that you are protected, know that you are mine.” With an otherworldly grace, a hand rises to my shoulder, and a heat radiates off of her and through my body, filling me. Then suddenly she is turning around and away, walking, fading, back into the mist, and it is my turn to continue back down the path I came from. Now the lights are what I am walking upon, almost carrying me back to where I belong. Back, back to the place where once I was falling, now lifting . Slowly I know I am rocking, chanting, though so softly now. My eyes open to the candle now burned down to a bit of a nub.




(I had titled this post differently, but determined that its former title was just too goofy for me, so I shall not bend over backwards to make the weeks letter go first!)