Riversleigh Ramblings

 

This page contains pieces written in response to  prompts at the Riversleigh Manor site at the Soul Food Cafe. 

 

 

  INTO THE CENTER

The earth smells rich and damp, fertile with ideas ready to take root and grow. The passageway is surprisingly warm; I expected it to be chilly underground and it isn’t at all. I can feel the softness of the earthen path beneath my feet and I let my fingers linger on the walls of the tunnel. The pulsing of life is the only thing to break the silence besides my own footsteps. I feel as though I am in an artery of life itself, part of a deep stream drawn through the earth to its heart. I follow the path, caught up in the surge of life-force flowing around me.

In a silence broken only by the drumbeat of life, my mind takes flight and I find myself wondering, “Where am I going and what have I done by crawling through that hole in the tree, deep in the woods behind Riversleigh? That tree looked like the grandmother of all the trees in the forest, holding secrets from before time itself began. Who am I to dare to enter its mysteries?”

But before I can begin to formulate an answer, light shows ahead. I step out of the narrow confines of the tunnel into a small antechamber with a huge stone archway before me. There is my destination, the heart of the place. Large torches at the entrance flicker and sputter, making the shadows all around me dance with life. My apprehension grows, but still I step beneath the stone lintel. I have come this far, and I will complete this journey.

The room I enter is dim, lit only by the glowing embers of a fire in the hearth at the center of the room. The floor is stone, and I can feel the grit of it beneath my feet as I try to step quietly in to the room. A single figure sits in silence, back to me, facing the remains of the fire. Now I can hear only the faint crack and pop of the embers and my own scraping footsteps breaking the quiet.

Slowly I advance into the warm darkness of the chamber. I feel caressed by the darkness, ensconced in the healing peace of the place. My pace slows still more. Finally, I circle the hearth and stand opposite the person sitting there. I bow slowly, deeply, letting the peace I feel flow into my movements. There is no hurry now, no rush. I am where I am supposed to be, at the center – truly centered, as it were, in the glowing heart of this chamber which in itself stands at the center of …where? Somewhere special, surely. I stand upright again and gaze into the eyes of the woman before me. Those eyes! I know those eyes; they look back at me from the mirror each morning…The rest of her face is lost in shadows, hidden in the hood of her cloak, but I catch a hint of a familiar smile as the eyes twinkle back at my surprise.

I feel a lump in my sweater pocket and reach in. It is like reaching into a magician’s sleeve – what comes out is far too large to have been in there at all, let alone for any length of time. I pull and pull, and a spray of vivid red and gold autumn leaves comes out of my pocket. Astonished, I look at them. They are beautiful, just the sort of thing I have always loved to look at. The figure across from me catches her breath slightly, and then I know I must give these to her. With a flourish and a smile, I present the bouquet of leaves to her and she reaches for them gladly.
“What would you know, then?” her familiar voice asks me.

I think for a moment and then ask.

I can hear a smile in her voice as she answers me. “Look within and have faith in yourself. All things that grow within you need patience, steadiness of effort, and belief.” She reaches out and takes my hands in hers for a moment and I can feel the doubts leaching out of me. Then she pulls a small box out of her robes and hands it to me.

“A reminder of what you seek.”

I open the box and find a small quill, sharpened and ready to use. The feather it is made from shimmers with myriad iridescent colors – a reminder of all the possibilities before me.

I bow deeply once more, thanking her quietly. Then I walk the rest of the way around the circle of the hearth and back to the door, feeling the bottomless peace of this place flow around and through me.

My trip back through the tunnels is a quiet one, my own heart once more beating in time with the pulsing I feel around me. I am silent, my usually racing mind quieted by the peace I have been immersed in.

I float home to Riversleigh through the deep green jewel tones of the forest twilight – how did so much time pass? Each and every leaf has a story to tell me, and the babbling of the brooks makes sense to me today. The fairies and pixies go with me, guiding my feet as I begin to wander down the wrong path in my distraction, pointing out still more sights and sounds to me as we go.

When I come within sight of the manor house, my stomach rumbles loudly, bringing me firmly back to earth, and I realize that I am very, very hungry. I run the rest of the way home for dinner.

-She Wolf ©2007