Trance And Dance

She had been walking a long time.  In fact, forever.  Walking was all her memory held.  The road was rough and seemed as if it might have been bombed at some point.  There were holes and areas of no asphalt even.  She stumbled frequently.

She carried a large bell in her right hand.  On the fourth step she rang her bell and it was a dreary note that didn't carry far.  Each fourth step the bell clanged dully.  It was a sort of march.

She had no idea what she looked like, but we may see the dark gown, sewn in some indifferent style.  The hem faded down into some sort of mist over the surface of the road.  There was a coat and her hair was loose on her shoulders.  There was no way to guess her age, for she was not in good focus.

Dark animals crossed the road sometimes, giving her faint baleful glances.  Trees of no particular sort leaned over dropping chilly drops of water. The road seemed to have no destination, though she remembered something she had heard once about a Place.

Around her left ankle was a chain fastened to a type of bracelet.  It chafed.  The chain receded back behind her down the road and into the mist.  If she looked she thought she saw the shadows of her parents and perhaps further back those of her four grandparents, all holding her chain in ghostly hands.  If she tried, she could see even further back.

Another day dawned darkly.  She walked on.

She came at last to a sort of open courtyard.  The sky was a bit lighter here.  There was a bench beside a small planted bed of some sort of flowers, though she didn't know what kind they were. There was a ringing tone in the air.  Perhaps that flower was a rose of some kind.  The word rose came back to her slowly as from a remembered dream.

Here you are, said the Silver Rose!  Sit down child, it said, though the rose knew her name.  She was so astounded that she sat, as bidden, and opened her eyes!

There was no chain! There was no bell. The rose was silent and golden, nodding there in the light. There was only brilliance in the daylight. There were the calls of robins, and some crows. The wind tossed some nearby trees audibly. She remembered her name then. There was nothing but light and warmth and she remembered love too, as from a dream. It filled her heart until she could hardly bear it. She began to be healed then. And she found that she was real, after all.

Our sister took a little nap in the comfort of a warm day on the nice grass.  When she woke, she was awake and went about her life rejoicing.  All her joys are her own. She gives as she has received.