The man was tall and thin. He wore a long robe, long hair and his head was cocked to one side as he smiled. The man gave no reason for me to fear him, in appearance nor action, but something was definitely wrong. The day the man appeared to me was an overcast and rainy one, a day made for watching T.V....not a day for a three year old girl to be playing outside.
It was mid afternoon, a small girl with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes sat no more than three feet away from the television, watching intently. She was most likely watching some favorite cartoon, but her attention soon drifted away from the screen. She was wondering where mom and dad had gone. She looked to her left and right, no sign of them.
"Mom, dad?" she called turning her head back and forth. Hearing no answer and seeing no one she stood, looking down the hallway to her left, towards her parents room. "Mom, dad?" she called again, her little voice carrying through the house.
No answer.
With only the need to find her parents on her mind she headed down the hall, calling once again, "Mom, dad?" Now she began to feel a little uneasy, the only sounds coming from the television in the living room and her small feet moving steadily down carpeted hallway.
At the very end of the hall she reached her parents room, it smelled faintly like her mother's perfume, as always. The room had a gloomy look to it as the light from the overcast sky filtered in through the windows.
She turned right just inside the door and then right again to a short hallway leading to the master bath. There she saw the man. "Stranger" was the first thought in her mind. She jumped as she realized that she could see right through him! Not only that but his feet weren't even touching the ground!
She ran screaming out of the room, down the hall, through the living room and kitchen and finally burst into the garage, where she finally found her parents. Through big gulps of air she managed to stammer something about "the man in the house". Her mother immediately charged into the house ready to confront this stranger. She found no one, and the door in the master bath that lead outside was locked. So... she came back to the garage, gathered up the little girl, and forced her to follow her down the hallway and into the bedroom.
Her mother showed her that there was no one hiding in the shower, neither in the closets, nor under the bed. She kept questioning the little girl about just where the man had been and what he had looked like. The little three year old never altered her story a single bit. She said the same thing over and over, "The man had long white hair, his feet weren't touching the floor, he wore a long white robe and he was smiling."
When her mother realized the impossibility of a three year old telling, let alone remembering, the same story over and over she questioned the little girl further.
"Did the man try and scare you?" she asked.
Over and over again the little girl said, "No, he was a good man, it just scared me to see him." The little girl was then talked to about spirits and ghosts, and about their being in the world with us. To this day the little girl's father refuses to admit it ever happened because of his disbelief in such things and because of how much it frightened him.
Her mother, however, still to this day gets chills, and the hair on the back of her neck stands up whenever the subject arises.
The telling and happenings of this story have remained the same for eighteen years now and the little girl, now a woman, continues to wonder after the appearance of The Man.
Ahh... life. Isn't it grand? Filled with all that you could ever possibly need and overflowing with all that you could have easily lived without...what a wonderful place. You have your hopes, your dreams, your love and your fears, you have your life...but for how long? Hopes can shrink and disappear before your eyes, dreams can drift away with a strong breeze, love, we learn, does not conquer all and fears loom over it all. Our lives are things shrouded in the perceptions and demands of the world, rarely do a special few catch a glimpse through the window of truth, and most cannot perceive the window.
Do you see? Do you see the window, can you imagine the larger image? Will you bother to look beyond what it is you think you know? Can any of you possibly understand that even those who are genius, those that have peered through a window, have seen naught but a grain of sand in it all?
Even as this pours forth from this whirlwind of a mind it is recognized, all life cannot be perceived. This mind can recognize the grand scale of it all but cannot and forever will not see. It will see a window or two, perhaps several more over the years to come, if in fact it has any left to spare. But it will see, oh yes it will see, that the world is made of windows... and life will never reveal her secrets. Ahh... life. Isn't it grand?
I love him
He can't see
Someone believes
Someone is hurt
All fades in time
Life is renewed
Hell claims another
The clouds are clearing
The mist thickens
All fades in time
He holds you in his arms
A child is forgotten
The wound begins to mend
Another will soon take its place
All fades in time
Love frees all souls
Another soul is lost
The path becomes clearer
Death has chosen you
All fades in time
In this time,
in this place.
Looking back
on what should have been.
The world is veiled in confusion
Life seems unfair
We don't care
No one tries to understand
Its better to be unnoticed
The web of lies is thickening
Many feel invisible
Our self-destruction is near
In this time,
in this place.
Looking ahead
on what can be.
Nature triumphs
Spirit outweighs looks
Love is the key to all
The light of truth shines through
The poison of deceit is cured
War has no place
Our lives have endless meaning
Understanding abounds
At times the veil lifts
all is seen with the clarity
of perfection
All is seen, all is known,
the world stretches
into infinity
The whirlwind of debris
that was your existence, has calmed
finally
Chaos, once your life's theme,
has been tamed, has been banished
for all eternity
The vast web of your fear,
your hate, your whole world has been
brushed aside
The dark cruelty and suffering that seemed
to devour the brilliant spark in all you have seen
has no place
Now you find that life has passed,
you drift, in the love and peace of
a new existence
For, in death, there is no veil
I want to stand
where the rainbow ends,
to feel the magic fill me
this need of mine, but
never will that deter me
I want to drink
in the colors
and let the power infuse me
To those who would laugh
I'd say, "Who has not wished
for a return to their innocence?"
I want to be
where the might of mother nature
has erupted into beauty
and weep with untainted joy
In death, when the angels ask of me
"What made your life special?"
I will proclaim
I stood where the rainbow ends...
Ah, the eternity in a single moment
The space between heartbeats
when reason stretches thin
When the waiting is painful
and the unknowing, agony
The heart expands with the warmth of hope
and the mind cringes away
from the inevitable hard truth
All has slowed to such stillness,
such quiet
that a breath, even a thought is deafening
The moment stretches, defying knowledge,
defying reason, but it goes unnoticed
Will an answer come?
Will all finally be revealed?
Will the mist clear to reveal the fulfillment
of hopes and dreams?
It has passed, the moment shattered,
glittering fragments lying all around
The heart is crushed, the mind screams,
the pain is so sharp
And on we dance, to the next moment,
millions of eternities as yet unknown.
All writing and art © Aydriana.