Today I sat upon the stony ground beneath a tall tree and watched children play in the sun Though they were unaware of me I watched them climb and dance as I once did I felt sorrow at what I had lost The energy and imaginings of youth The unbridled dance I had continually created from moment to moment As I watched and thought an elderly couple appeared I watched them walk close by me and saw that they had spent much time together Perhaps thier whole lives I thought upon my own life as it is and wondered if I would ever meet that woman for whom I was destined Wondered if I had been destined at all to do anything I felt sorrow at what future I could see and in despair slept to run from the pain Once I opened my eyes again I found I had gone blind The world was dark Soon I discovered that the world had disappeared entirely I couldn t stand for there was no ground upon which to do so I couldn t see for there was no light No sound chose to echo in my ears nor smell to tickle my nose I felt nothing There simply was nothing to feel As I floated in my new found freedom I let my thoughts wander over the life of despair I had left behind and smiled I could never go back now Freedom from those chains of mortality was mine The glue that had stuck me to that body with it s inane desires had finally dissolved These thoughts of freedom were soon intruded upon by soft light I couldn t know what to make of it Something was coming for me All I could feel now was fear Something was coming to take me back to that horrible place where hunger was omnipotent and wisdom itself was nothing more than a misunderstood concept please please leave me alone I begged of this new entity in my thoughts to you I owe nothing Let me be The voice that answered was no voice There was no sound to accompany the understood idea that had entered my head by itself Confusion swept me as a man entered my view This man was as wild as I d ever seen No clothing hung from his body nor did any need to It was plain that shame didn t exist here He motioned towards me and I was pulled forward with great speed but there was no force to be felt I flew past him and all I could think was of an invitation that had come to me Come it said you are my guest I have brought you here to meet someone I had no choice My freedom had once again been stolen but now there was no death to look forward to I could only assume I had entered some afterlife never thought of on Earth As I was pushed into the soft glow I saw a figure I couldn t see any kind of face I could see where a face should be but it change so swiftly Now a young man now an old woman now a newborn child now a dusty corpse Nothing before or since this has inspired such fear such agony of emotion The voice I felt from this entity (for I could still hear nothing I could only feel ideas I m afraid I can t describe this well enough to convey what it was I was going through) was a voice of compassion A voice of complete understanding It stated only what needed to be understood nothing more nothing less Come I felt and followed willingly My fear being replaced by wonder The soft glow I had earlier seen was emanating from a beautiful web of light Strands of looping interwoven light that held me entranced My power to describe the things that follow is weak Please try to understand that I cannot do this vision justice no matter how I try The being I was now following seemed to be in some control of this tapestry of light (Nothing was pulling me now and I found I could move at will These are the things I observed ) This being could move faster than I could possibly have imagined before now First an old woman gently nudging a strand into place Then a young boy tugging violently at another trying to change its course Soon the being came to me It motioned that I follow and follow I did The things I saw as we flew through the strands fixed my attention as never before We whipped through light that was flailing trying to hold our course We followed strands that seemed not to move at all and I basked in thier glow The being seemed to move as if it had done this a thousand times before Never seming to slow or correct its movement as it led me through the multitude of living glowing ropes We soon settled near one strand In one direction off to the right This light didn t move at all In the other direction it moved Only a little where we were but farther away it looked like a dervish straining to escape a binding trap To be struck by it would mean my total destruction So I was inclined to think at the time The being settled across the strand from me and spread its ever changing arms You I felt That was all for a short time I couldn t hope to understand what it meant but it didn t answer right away I thought quickly about what it could mean but was as confused as the moment I first had entered this place of light The being then dropped one hand The one pointing towards the twisting and flighty end of the strand past I felt and a glimmer of understanding brushed my mind It raised its hand again simultaneously dropping the other Future My mind raced with confusion at the things I now knew How can this be I floated staring at the glowing line of my own life Looking towards the still end I could see that nothing I could think or do could ever change the place it held I could see the strand where it had touched others and how thier directions had changed because of it I looked towards the other end my future and the end there would tangle itself with others Then just as quickly unwind and shoot of to another direction Just then the being spoke more words than I had yet or since heard it say It pointed towards my past lifeline This doesn t change It then pointed again to the winding future Look how it moves Every thought changes the path You have seen storm and chaos yet know that you have seen nothing You despair at this motionless path yet it looks like any other You become a wretch because of a path you cannot predict in the other direction Do you not know the only thing that counts is the tapestry Begone now You cannot know any more than that which you have seen I hurt to think of the loss of this vision The being was gone however and I was still in the middle of the woven work of life I stared at this bright string that was me How can I be gone when I have seen the works of the caretaker of life The man who had brought me to the being appeared to me and spoke Come you are my guest and you have seen At this I was pulled to the hole and back to the darkness Back to the floating nothing in which I had first appeared In the blackness I closed my eyes and opened them to sunlight The vision was still fresh in my mind and I hurried to find a way to give this to others How many strands how many lives can I touch Who will change course upon the knowledge I have recieved One A hundred I cannot know Perhaps the Being gently persuading all of us as I have seen it do cannot know until it has happened Perhaps no one will ever know Perhaps I dreamt only a dream Perhaps Jason Cutting 11 19 96