The Mystery Calls

[Alana Bliss]

An Adventure always begins with a calling. A deep stirring in the soul that pulls at our very core, beckoning us toward the mystery. Perhaps it is this calling that drives people to invent, create, and step faithfully beyond their comprehension, driven by a knowing that at the other end of the unknown lies a revelation that will change there lives and the lives of those around them. I remember the day I first felt this calling. I was a young child embraced by the forest of the northern woods. It was while I was alone among the trees that I could feel the stirring. It was if the wind itself called me toward the unknown. Though I did not understand it then, I can recall the swelling desire within for a fulfillment of life that nourished my whole self.

Hermit Child

I was a shy little girl, fascinated with the intricate workings of nature’s ever-unfolding beauty. While other children played with dolls and cars, I played with bugs and watched animals. I climbed trees hoping to reach into the sky and touch clouds, felt the mud of the creek bank squish between my toes with a giggle, pretended to be the tadpole as it transformed into a frog, and fascinated myself the fragility of life when I would come across an animal that had taken the Great Journey into the unknown of death. I smelled the bark of trees and held rocks with a reverence, watched spiders spin webs and memorized the calls of birds. I could listen to the whispers of the trees and feel the winds wisdom as it shared its stories of faraway places.

As deeply connected with the earth as I felt, I also felt a warm healthy connection to my family. I felt that their love held me so safely that I could ride any wave that life tossed my way and stand rooted in heavy storms. I felt a deep peace with my life. But then I began to feel a stirring inside, a call that threatened to pull me from my sovernty, tempting me toward the darkness of the mystery. As a child I lived in a protected bubble of love that filled me with warmth and assured me that life was love and that I fit into it. I felt connected and supported.

As I grew, however, I began to see beyond my bubble and out into the world at large. What I saw terrified me and stirred feeling that before that I only felt in my nightmares. I saw the destruction of the forests and the lust for control that drove humanity to isolate itself from the whole earth. I saw the wake of suffering that rolled off of this destruction and the displaced confusion that lingered on the faces of those that followed the industrialization of the earth. Bulldozers forcing earth into submission, saws cutting off the life force of the forest without a thought for what the future would bring, driven by narrow-minded desire for money and comfort from the suffering. I saw the earth being beaten into submission for the desire of control, stemming from fear rooted in a sense of isolation.

Of course as a child all I could comprehend was the destruction and the suffering of the people as a result. I tried to connect with other children and for a while I pretended not to notice. I tried to convince myself that our geometrically calculated world was just right and that as long as natures abstractions burst in on the borders all would be fine. But as I grew older and the children in school grew colder, I could pretend no longer and that stirring inside me took over, pulling me into what I have come to call the underworld.

[Joy Hart]

I love the content and the writing. Hope there's more. I will send a request to be your friend.
Joy