The Land of Light

As she drove along the highway, the sun glistened over the sandstone formations in the rock at the side of the valley. The shadows immersed the scenery in beauty that only the hand of the Universe and Mother Nature could conspire to create together. The rocks revealed ruins of an ancient land, of a land that knew no time, no stress, no pressures but a land that used nature as measures of time. Birds glided freely in this land of orange basking in the glory of freedom. This beautiful land that she didn’t notice as she drove mindlessly along.

From the corner of her eye she noticed the entrance to an Inca Tomb with two Sphinx-like statues carved from the rock but her mindless state required her to keep driving on autopilot on the highway. In her car were her two sleeping babies in the back seat and her husband snoring loudly in the front seat – a common sight these days. She was asleep with her eyes open.

She failed to see the beauty surrounding her but sometimes noticed it in her periphery vision.

She never dared to stop en-route as she had to reach her destination with her passengers at a set time. She was obedient and obeyed the laws of society which instructed that she be diligent to keep all passengers safe and well on their journey, never for a second taking stock of her own well-being. The notion of stopping to breathe and inhale the beauty and wonder of the surrounds was forbidden – it was time-wasting and when all passengers slept; it was timely to cover as much ground as possible in that vehicle.

She travelled along and noticed she had to pass through a road block which became stifling and suffocating. Her lungs filled up with so much smog and grief that she just wanted to pass through without haste. She reached the other side safely but fearfully with all passengers still sleeping. She noticed the changed environment, the fog stifled the air, it made visibility impossible. Even with dim-lights on in the car, the proximity to oncoming vehicles was dangerous and unknown. She panicked, leapt out of the car and in doing so, she alarmed her sleeping husband who awoke abruptly and angrily.

She ran – ran back to the Land of the Light abandoning him and all contents of the vehicle; everything she knew to be safe, sure and familiar. She ran and longed to be in that land she only had glimpses of as she previously drove past but knew it existed.

Then as if alerted by a thug from within, she thought of her two beautiful babies in that fog engulfed land and bawled for them. They were her babies no matter what age time put on them and they were part of her being. The four and five year old blue eyed boys had awoken feeling her departure and uncertainty swallow them, unlocked themselves from the car and following her scent, ran to her with open arms. She could hear the yells of an angry man in the foggy distance but dare not reply.

She ran to her babies with an open heart, scooped both up simultaneously, her whole world was in her embrace close to her heart…nothing else mattered.

She turned on her heels and faced that wall; that challenge to get back to The Land of Light.

She placed her foot out into the abyss knowing that safety was not guaranteed as before in the protection of the vehicle. Uncertainty greeted her. She held her babies so close to her heart that her heart-beat calmed them and in response they jeweled her neck with their little arms. One foot slowly in front on the other, gently, consciously, mindfully, in that embrace of unconditional love knowing those two babies lives depended on her sure foot steps on by one.

She didn’t falter. She knew she was held by forces unseen. She felt them before, heard them before but was too busy on autopilot to stop, too busy to bask in the light, too busy to let it in.

Eyes wide open and from a pure conscious state she entered The Land of Light. She lovingly placed the feet of her babies on the soft welcoming terrane. It was different. There was no longer a highway but instead random paths where no vehicles had traversed. The expression ‘the road less travelled’ came to her. There were no sign posts, no solid ground but beauty all around.

Mother Nature spoke to her and her babies. It spoke a language of butterflies, feathers, meadow flowers, birds, the sound of the wind rustling in the trees, the trickling of water as it passed along unhurriedly in the stream. She sat on the ground with her two babies in a circle, held their little hands and looked directly into their gaze. She asked them to trust her and she promised them faithfully they would never again enter the Land of Fog, they would never again live in fear, they would now be allowed to roam free – free as the birds and collect as many friends in nature as they wished.

She promised to love them to infinity every time, she hugged them from the core of her being and she thanked them for choosing her to lead them this time to the Land of Light.

Written by Belinda Murphy https://www.bellathebutterfly.ie/about/

Dedicated to my two baby boys xxx