by: Ruth
On a high mountain top, in an empty house, a crone sits alone on a seat of stone.
Through the empty house the wind blows with a passion, howling like a wild talking animal flowing free, chaotic and in every direction. The wind could take a million different paths uninhibited by doubt and indecision, it was just free to be.
The crone sat and listened to the wind as it whipped through the empty rooms of her empty house. The wind could blow away the dust from the house and though it may try, it could not blow away memories, love or the longing she still felt for her beloved husband. The wind also could not blow away the crone’s loneliness and the dark shadows that gathered in the corners of the empty rooms or the shadows that lay in the corners of her heart.
And night fell and fell and fell
And the wind blew
On a high mountain top, in an empty house, a crone sits alone on a seat of stone.
One night in a valley far below at the base of her mountain, she sees a whisp of light. Each night the light draws nearer to the lonely mountain top and is always joined by another light. Brighter and closer the lights come until the final night it seems as if the sun itself is outside the door of the empty house.
The crone slowly opens the door to her house and to her amazement she sees people outside each holding an orb of light in their hands. At first the crone is dazzled by the lights and cannot make out one color of light from the other. Yet slowly over time, she makes sense of the lights and the different colors.
- Those holding blue lights are people the crone can talk to more about her loss and loneliness
- Those holding green lights are people the crone can talk to about certain parts of her grief, but not others
- Those holding purple lights are people that can be counted on for help, but these people do not want to talk about the crone’s grief and the emotional depths of her soul
And yet all the lights together reach into the dark shadowy corners of the empty house and the dark secret corners of her heart.
And night fell
And the wind began to quiet
One night the crone looks around her house as if looking at it with new eyes. She notices her own light orb on a shelf in a room half forgotten in her empty house. And she found the strength one night to pick it up and travel to a valley far below another mountain where another lonely person sat alone at its peak, in an empty house, in the dark of night, listening to the wind howl.
Each night the crone traveled slowly up the mountain and each night is joined by another person holding their own light orb. Some people she meets are familiar and are ones that came to her on her own mountain. Others are new to her, yet all those she meets have a single purpose- to journey up the mountain together, holding a light for the person sitting alone in an empty house, on top of the mountain.
And slowly each night became brighter
On a high mountain top a crone sits on a seat of stone and finally understands she is not alone. Although she will forever miss her beloved husband, she found others to help her when she could not find her way through the dark of night herself.
And though the wind still blows on her mountain top and night still falls, now the night turns in to day and the light of the sun rises and rises and rises.