Your jeans are wet Sitting in two inches of water Everything is moving You open your eyes You're holding a paddle...death grip You're in a canoe In rapids...no too loud Oh my God...skyfall...falling You lost the paddle...oblivion. You awaken again. Underwater!...but...you can breathe? Above you sunlight...swim! Breaking the surface softly...what is this... A small waterfall, falling on a stone...not the waterfall where you fell. No clothes! This is..a hallucination? Dream? Death? A small waterfall seems to emerge from a peak above, and falls on the stone underneath A deep lagoon of water surrounds it And below, the land descends in green meadows and scrub bushes and hedge...no big trees You sense you are at high altitude...you would not be surprised if you were in the Andes. But it's too green. Time passes, but the sun does not move. It stays perfectly poised above the stony peak, and the waterfall emerging from it seems almost to rain from the sun. Or through it. Well. Nothing's happening. If this was a dream or a hallucination it would change, or you would wake up.. If this is death, it's an unusual hell or heaven. You spend some time standing on the stone and feeling the waterfall pummel your body. The clearest snowmelt water...but you are not chilled. You swim to the rim of the lagoon, climb out of the water, and the brisk wind seems to blow right through you. You know it's cold, but somehow it doesn't affect you. Hunger and thirst seem theoretical. This is not a physical place. And no one is coming to take you anywhere or tell you what you need to do. You look down and over the rolling hills. Only occasional clouds go by, and racing like chariots in a pale blue sky. There are rolling hills below, and as you scan the horizon, you see a dark shape in the distance, moving...but it disappears behind a hill. You decide to check it out. You walk what feels like a half mile, down the rolling terrain, across loose shale...and through bushes...and coming down the side of a hill there is a meadow of waving, tall grass. What a nice place to sit down and try to figure what the hell is going on. And you sit. The sun is pleasantly warm here, and the hills block some of the wind. The grass is almost waist height, heavy with seeds. Something moving fast and dark at the corner of your eye. You look quickly, and see an animal disappearing noiselessly into a thicket. Now, that's different. Instinctively you sit very quietly and listen. Except for the breeze in the tall grass, there is no sound. Until a very sharp sound makes you turn, and now the same animal is twenty feet away, looking at you with a brilliant gleam in it's eye. Then turns slowly and making a leisurely exit. You stand up, watching to see where the animal goes. Right behind you. And says *hello*. Or rather, you feel '*hello*' between your ears. And you make the animal feel, "hello", from you. *Need help?* "Don't know what I'm supposed to do." *People who come here, come here to get help. Do you want me to help you?* "Yes. Need help." *Do you accept me as your helper?* Very important, seems. "Yes/Sure. If you want to really help, I accept. Animal? Spirit? Angel?" *Yes, Sure.* Laughter. *But you have to feed me.* "Uh-oh." More laughter. *Just dance with me. Play with me, in your world.* "That's all?" *That's enough! We will be connected, you will dance in my world, I will dance in yours, and we'll both wear each other's skin. Want to try it?* And you are that animal. You wear it's skin. Its spirit inside you explores your human-ness, as the power an attributes of the animal are yours. And you realize the kind of animal that appeared in your mind was not an accident. You needed it and it chose you, both. Earth mother guardian angel. You know the way back..through one of the water filled caves in the lagoon. The animal tells you it's important to note your travel to and from this place...always travel in steps, not leaps. Leaps leave blood in the water for things you don't want to know about. "What things?" *You have different names for them...thety try to cause fear and feed on disrupted energy. We can handle them...just look for the signs...mutations, madness, exaggerrated huge talons or teeth, a feeling that energy is being stolen from your stomach. If you see one, ask me for help, I'll show you just what to do.* "Let's go. I feel safer in the hood." Amusement. *I can't wait for the 'hood'.*
i feel safer right were i am. i will get bored if i can't build things though. that's who i am. that's what i am. no i didn't come here in need of seeking anything. spirit of this place, i will be happy to call you friend if you wish the same of me. i'm not a very good one for dancing, but we can try that. perhaps here where there is no effort and no pain i will be better at doing so. i'm glad your here, in a way. i'm even gladder that you are willing to accept my being here. i like all friends, though i also like not seeking them, which i usually don't. not wanting to know things that might frighten me? oh i've seen that. i can still be startled of course. you startled me a bit just now. i think some people have this fascination with wanting to be scared. i'm not really interested in that. i like make things that aren't people that move and see them do that without hurting anything. to me a place doesn't seem complete without them. and encolosures of spaces, with openings. but still with the trees and the rocks and mountains being the most of everything. its a nice place you have here. you might think not, because i'm also in one of those physical worlds in one of those physical universes, but i'm really from a place a lot like this too. i try not to teleport. sometimes it just happens. i look at some other place i can see, and if i wonder what it looks like from there, the next thing i know there i am. that's why i like the little trains instead. the ones only just big enough to sit on. so i can see every tree and rock and bush and all of their shapes and colors along the way, instead of missing them by being here and suddenly there. like you did a moment ago. well i don't mean to keep you from people who do need your healing. it is great fun meeting you here like this though. i don't think we've formally met before, but you're coyote's friend aren't you? the one who keeps bringing him back to life after he keeps getting himself in so much trouble. coyote who made the kind of people you probably thought i was, the way he makes everything, as a joke. well i'm just guessing of course, but you seem to have something of the vulpine about you. many tales but always less then nine tails, or so i've been told.
