To the ladies who so kindly asked for my website page at the dinner last evening... this is a very old site. The other one I've been using, though similarly abandoned to the unfathomable trash heap of the Internet, has been re-organized a bit and is more up-to-date. I encourage you to go there for stories instead of wading through things here! Most of this content is also on the other. I'll have to work on a proper website for this summer.
www.thecolourofthought.wordpress.com
Happy reading,
Nicole Ankenmann
Friday, 14 April 2017
Thursday, 14 August 2014
A Wee Word from an Absentee Author
What a whirlwind summer it's been so far here in the wilds (okay, we have wifi so it's not exactly tree-planting isolation) of Muskoka. This week I'm staring at Main Camp from the opposite side of the lake, tapping out an update while listening to our dish crew flipping through their playlist: Shania Twain, something reminiscent of Casting Crowns and Taylor Swift, maybe? It's pretty quiet now, but I don't expect that to stick. Mini-Yo-We is never calm and tranquil very long while campers are nearby.
Through most of this season I've felt a tugging on my heart for city life... but moments like this? I am blessed to have called this place Home for so long. I'm ready to travel and explore, but I am comforted by how steady the rhythms are here. People come and go like a tide in Huntsville: in with the Spring, out with Autumn. The winters are still, the summers are chaos, the whole lot of it beautiful and precious and safe and pure. I love it here. I love the water that I am also mildly afraid of, and the snow that I will curse by February, and the furry little devils that eat through our food supplies. I love all the people I can't wait to escape from at the end of a very long day and the rain that makes the commute a little treacherous and all of the other things my Husband has to endure me griping about these days. I love it all. I just don't always remember that truth.
Every day has highlights and treasures. This morning I came early to make breakfast for a couple girls working in town during the day and volunteering here at Camp at night. They were running late, but with one look they managed to make my 6am arrival, car-stalling Tim Horton's stop and three hours of scone-making yesterday completely worth the effort. Their grateful faces (and subsequent encouraging text messages) lifted my weary spirit and helped me remember why I'm here: satisfy a physical need so that others can be freed and fuelled to tackle more spiritual demands.
...I have my fingers in the soul-feeding too, and my ongoing Curriculum Project now has a little home online. But for now it's back behind the apron. Chicken-broccoli casserole, anyone?
Through most of this season I've felt a tugging on my heart for city life... but moments like this? I am blessed to have called this place Home for so long. I'm ready to travel and explore, but I am comforted by how steady the rhythms are here. People come and go like a tide in Huntsville: in with the Spring, out with Autumn. The winters are still, the summers are chaos, the whole lot of it beautiful and precious and safe and pure. I love it here. I love the water that I am also mildly afraid of, and the snow that I will curse by February, and the furry little devils that eat through our food supplies. I love all the people I can't wait to escape from at the end of a very long day and the rain that makes the commute a little treacherous and all of the other things my Husband has to endure me griping about these days. I love it all. I just don't always remember that truth.
Every day has highlights and treasures. This morning I came early to make breakfast for a couple girls working in town during the day and volunteering here at Camp at night. They were running late, but with one look they managed to make my 6am arrival, car-stalling Tim Horton's stop and three hours of scone-making yesterday completely worth the effort. Their grateful faces (and subsequent encouraging text messages) lifted my weary spirit and helped me remember why I'm here: satisfy a physical need so that others can be freed and fuelled to tackle more spiritual demands.
...I have my fingers in the soul-feeding too, and my ongoing Curriculum Project now has a little home online. But for now it's back behind the apron. Chicken-broccoli casserole, anyone?
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Copper Redemption
Three weeks had gone by since she dug
up the old coin in her muddy front yard on the day it had rained. She’d been
looking for earthworms to lay out for the robins before her five-year-old
fingers unburied their treasure and the feeding of birds was forgotten. She
rubbed off the dirt in a puddle nearby, but even mostly-clean it was much
darker than the rest of her collection. She put the piece in her mouth and
carefully removed the stubborn lumps of earth with her tongue. The taste of it
was unfamiliar, unpleasant and lingering but children are dedicated archaeologists
and she noticed every possible detail before removing the coin to examine it
with methods more palatable to adult sensibilities.
The edge was round, but imperfectly so, with straight parts she could feel but not see. It was brown, mostly, with a tint of turtle-green… the same colour as the stuff her mom sometimes put in their garden to make sure it grew only nice flowers and no grass; the colour of real Christmas trees after Christmas when people leave them outside to die, and get covered up by falling snow. And there was a picture of somebody’s Nana on one side, playing dress-up like a princess. The little girl carried it protectively, cupped between both hands with the instinctive knowledge that it was something both precious and rare.
“It’s a penny,” said her mother with a note of surprise in her voice. “I haven’t seen one since I was a kid. They stopped making them before I was born, but you could still find one from time to time back then, hiding under dusty old couches or in the pockets of coats people hadn’t worn in a while. I think they’re supposed to be lucky. That’s a pretty special mite of metal you’ve got there my girl.”
Later that evening she took the penny upstairs. She put it into a brown paper bag with great care and wrote her name across the top with large, wobbly letters; she put that parcel into the front pocket of a retro Magic School Bus backpack her grandfather had picked up at an auction many years ago. It was a struggle to get the antique zipper moving, but she persistently worked the slider over a few rusty places along its length and at last secured her prize. Very few things were made to zip anymore, so the technology was a trial on its own. She slipped the straps over her small shoulders and tugged them tight.
For three weeks she wore that backpack like a shell, only taking it off in absolutely critical moments. She wore it to school on the days she had to go; she wore it to the grocery store when she traveled out to shop with her mother. She even wore it to bed, and after a few restless nights learning to sleep on her side, she began to feel it quite a comfort. It was like wearing a hug, laced with magic and mystery. On occasion, when she thought her memory of the coin was beginning to fade and blur, she would sit off in a quiet corner of the world and pull the penny out of its hiding place to stare at it. The copper coin was a delight and a marvel to the little girl every day she had it, and it stirred in her thoughts even months after it left her possession.
Three weeks after discovering the coin, the girl and her mother took a winding path on their way to town for the afternoon. At his usual place on the third bench from the gate sat the man she knew only as Mr. Dundurn, so called after the name of the park where he spent so much time. He was always polite and smiling, and had built up an unspoken acquaintanceship with the strolling pair, but he wasn’t quick enough to hide his tears before they passed him this time. Her mother looked on with pity and apology, but those are not the first instincts of childhood. The little girl quietly stopped walking, removed the brown paper bag from her pack and set the penny gently on the seat beside the man. “It’s a penny,” she whispered. “It’s old and nice like you, and I think it’s a lucky one. I hope it’s lucky for you too.” His eyes continued to steam as he whispered his thanks in reply, but the source of their flow had changed. The girl took her mother’s hand once more and left one lost man and one found coin sitting together on the bench by the oak.
Worth restored to the fringe and forgotten. And luck had nothing to do with it.
The edge was round, but imperfectly so, with straight parts she could feel but not see. It was brown, mostly, with a tint of turtle-green… the same colour as the stuff her mom sometimes put in their garden to make sure it grew only nice flowers and no grass; the colour of real Christmas trees after Christmas when people leave them outside to die, and get covered up by falling snow. And there was a picture of somebody’s Nana on one side, playing dress-up like a princess. The little girl carried it protectively, cupped between both hands with the instinctive knowledge that it was something both precious and rare.
“It’s a penny,” said her mother with a note of surprise in her voice. “I haven’t seen one since I was a kid. They stopped making them before I was born, but you could still find one from time to time back then, hiding under dusty old couches or in the pockets of coats people hadn’t worn in a while. I think they’re supposed to be lucky. That’s a pretty special mite of metal you’ve got there my girl.”
Later that evening she took the penny upstairs. She put it into a brown paper bag with great care and wrote her name across the top with large, wobbly letters; she put that parcel into the front pocket of a retro Magic School Bus backpack her grandfather had picked up at an auction many years ago. It was a struggle to get the antique zipper moving, but she persistently worked the slider over a few rusty places along its length and at last secured her prize. Very few things were made to zip anymore, so the technology was a trial on its own. She slipped the straps over her small shoulders and tugged them tight.
For three weeks she wore that backpack like a shell, only taking it off in absolutely critical moments. She wore it to school on the days she had to go; she wore it to the grocery store when she traveled out to shop with her mother. She even wore it to bed, and after a few restless nights learning to sleep on her side, she began to feel it quite a comfort. It was like wearing a hug, laced with magic and mystery. On occasion, when she thought her memory of the coin was beginning to fade and blur, she would sit off in a quiet corner of the world and pull the penny out of its hiding place to stare at it. The copper coin was a delight and a marvel to the little girl every day she had it, and it stirred in her thoughts even months after it left her possession.
Three weeks after discovering the coin, the girl and her mother took a winding path on their way to town for the afternoon. At his usual place on the third bench from the gate sat the man she knew only as Mr. Dundurn, so called after the name of the park where he spent so much time. He was always polite and smiling, and had built up an unspoken acquaintanceship with the strolling pair, but he wasn’t quick enough to hide his tears before they passed him this time. Her mother looked on with pity and apology, but those are not the first instincts of childhood. The little girl quietly stopped walking, removed the brown paper bag from her pack and set the penny gently on the seat beside the man. “It’s a penny,” she whispered. “It’s old and nice like you, and I think it’s a lucky one. I hope it’s lucky for you too.” His eyes continued to steam as he whispered his thanks in reply, but the source of their flow had changed. The girl took her mother’s hand once more and left one lost man and one found coin sitting together on the bench by the oak.
Worth restored to the fringe and forgotten. And luck had nothing to do with it.
Saturday, 21 June 2014
The Gate
There is a little girl
just over the fence, sitting alone on the grass. She is playing with blocks,
making a careful study of each one as though it were the key to a riddle, or
the answer to a mystery that might announce itself if she turned it the right
way in the sunshine. The fence is not a particularly imposing barrier, white
picketed of the sort found in old stories of quaint, by gone times. Close to
the girl is a gate on three hinges with a sign reading "Welcome,"
hung up on a nail. It is closed with a latch on her side.
A boy is playing on the
sidewalk with toy cars, treating each groove in the pavement as a river or set
of train tracks or occasionally a crack in the world that falls through to
Australia, and then he would find things to drive his cars upside down on for a
while before getting tired of the facade and returning each toy to its proper
country.
At the moment his
vehicles are in Australia, and he is driving them (a blue sedan of some kind,
and a red one with up-lights and an edge) along a highway made of the underside
of his arm. The sound effects alternate between revving engines, squealing
brakes and little boy giggles as he reaches a straight part, a corner and a
ticklish bit in turn. He sees the girl through the slim slats in the fence and
walks over to the gate.
"Can I come and
play building-things with you?" he asks, loud enough to get her attention
but gently enough that she isn't startled. She sets down the blocks and gets up
to her feet but holds to her place on the lawn.
"I'm not building," she says simply.
"But they're blocks," says the boy, perturbed. "What else are they good for?"
"I don't know yet," she says with a sigh. "I'm trying to figure that out."
"I'm not building," she says simply.
"But they're blocks," says the boy, perturbed. "What else are they good for?"
"I don't know yet," she says with a sigh. "I'm trying to figure that out."
The boy considers her
reply a moment while his cars idle, Down Under. "I could show you how to
play building-things, if you want. I like it, lots and lots. It's fun! And you
could still think, if you want, while we play."
The girl tips her head
to one side and then the other, surveying the boy with the same vague and
curious intensity that had been applied to the pieces of wood at her feet.
Hesitant but obliging, she agrees. "You can come in, as long as you
promise to be careful."
"I promise," he promises.
"I promise," he promises.
They face each other
over top of the fence which comes up to both of their noses. "You'll have
to open the gate," says the boy. She looks at the latch.
"It's locked," reports the little girl, already defeated.
"Can you try and unlock it?"
"Maybe," she whispers, "but I don't know how it works. It could take a long time... I've never really let anyone in before. Not by the gate."
"It's locked," reports the little girl, already defeated.
"Can you try and unlock it?"
"Maybe," she whispers, "but I don't know how it works. It could take a long time... I've never really let anyone in before. Not by the gate."
The
girl is both keen and nervous. Perceptive for someone his age, the boy decides
not to push her any further. Instead, he smiles and makes his next move slowly.
Fixing his eyes on the little girl he reaches one hand over the fence and holds
out the red car, inviting her to trust him in the same way a child might try to
tempt a rabbit closer with a leafy bit of celery. "We can just play here
for a while, if you want," he suggests, "and worry about the lock
later." She nods and takes the toy out of his hand. She smiles.
The clouds on her side of the fence change shape and colour far more than the sky above the boy. One minute they grow thick and dark with threat of rain, clearing again in the blink of an eye to fine wisps of pink and purple, billowing high into the atmosphere, covering the whole of the sky, then shrinking down to nothing and revealing only the great blue beyond. They move swiftly, the clouds, in stride with her countenance. He watches the weather and he watches the girl. She watches him back. And they play.
The clouds on her side of the fence change shape and colour far more than the sky above the boy. One minute they grow thick and dark with threat of rain, clearing again in the blink of an eye to fine wisps of pink and purple, billowing high into the atmosphere, covering the whole of the sky, then shrinking down to nothing and revealing only the great blue beyond. They move swiftly, the clouds, in stride with her countenance. He watches the weather and he watches the girl. She watches him back. And they play.
Time,
in the liquid present, moves like the clouds: one moment in a hurry, the next
standing still. Children very rarely stand still, but it would be impossible to
say how long this boy and this girl stand playing at the gate before the
stillness of time is interrupted by another person. But that person is now
coming, and will inevitably, eventually reach their place. It is a stranger, an
Adult, who has opened locked gates before and will teach the little girl what
to do. The
latch will be mastered, the playmate invited to cross an uncrossed line, and
the mysterious bricks once studied will be marveled at once more, this time in
the company of a Friend.
But for now, they just play.
Monday, 5 May 2014
FIVE (til) GOLDEN RINGS!!!
Somehow the last few months of planning since the proposal has evaporated and Ben and I are getting married THIS WEEK! I'm currently sitting outside of my bedroom where I have spent my morning thus far packing a big ol' suitcase for our mysterious honeymoon (Ben's very tight-lipped secret)! The little breather I'm granting myself feels simultaneously well earned and glutenous, like the reward of ice cream at the end of a hefty meal... it has been an absolute joy getting here, but I still feel like I need a little break! Making dozens of little decisions about font style and ribbon colour; organizing with others to tackle creative projects and mundane repetitive tasks alike; receiving and giving thanks for so many wonderful new things. There has been work involved, and a few tears on a few occasions (and many tears once or twice), but the whole experience has been the setting-up of a magic trick: focus on the delicate mechanisms so that everyone else can simply soak in the wonder of the final moment of prestige. The audience cheers, the crew smiles appreciatively and the magician and his lovely assistant take a bow on their behalf. That's kind of what I'm expecting on Saturday.
Friday, 18 April 2014
Traditions of Court: an Easter Allegory
Every child in Court is given one
gift on their birthday, but not until they are five years old. Boys and girls
are taught from the cradle what makes a birthday special and as a family they
acknowledge the day with sweet cakes and pink lemonade, but never with a gift
of any description -- not until the child is five.
A person's fifth birthday in Court
is a fervently anticipated affair. It is not uncommon to see entire communities
rally around the central figure, each household in the neighbourhood preparing
enough lemonade and cake to feed counties of bellies. You might find a block
party on the street, or a celebration hosted in a large hall, or a collection
of people in a park or at the beach if the weather is nice; but there is no question
that you would find them, should you be in town on one of these
looked-forward-to days. The joyful noises of the place echo around every corner
in the city, steadily drawing people nearer. It is a playful afternoon,
bursting with music and dancing and family and joy, topped off with a vibrantly
ribboned present, presented and opened at the festivity's start.
The gift is beautifully wrapped in
gold paper. Sometimes the gift would be box-shaped and sometimes it would be
swaddled simply in a few layers of newspaper below its lovely metallic sheen;
whatever its outward adornment, the content of the gift was well known to every
person in town. It was the same sort of thing that each of them had received on
his or her fifth birthday, and on all following birthdays for nine years more.
It was a bear. It was always a bear.
"On this great occasion,
little one," announced the Mayor of Court as soon as the paper had been
pulled away and the soft stuffed animal had been coddled in a smothering
embrace, "on this day you join us as an official Courtier. You will learn
with us, live with us and grow in this land. When the time comes you will serve
with us, and when you grow old you will be cared for. By receiving this bear,
you receive the gift of the protection of Court, and by receiving this bear you
enter into a lifelong commitment that you will not yet understand. We will help
you, as you gain knowledge, experience and understanding of what this covenant
really means. But for now," his voice swelling in a grand crescendo as he
turned to the crowd and spread wide his arms, "it is time to
celebrate!"
Cakes were cut, lemonade was poured
and the music got cranked up in volume to an almost inappropriate level. It was
impossible to hold a grudge or keep a frown on a fifth birthday. It was a
jubilee where all such weights and burdens were thrown off and then forgotten:
a cultural cleanse, committed several times a year.
There were no toyshops anywhere in
the land of Court. No miniature cars, no baby-like dolls, no easy-bake ovens or
marbles or chess. In place of these contraptions, kids played together in
elaborate games of make-believe and pretend that always featured their bears.
For five-year-old children that first bear was hero and heroine, villain and
victim, brother and sister and friend in turn. That first bear, though joined
by another on each birthday until the child turned fifteen, was the most
important gift ever received, and was the most treasured possession of any
Courtier boy or girl. It was always given a name; it was always treated with
particular respect; it was always remembered with a tender fondness, even in
the legendary stories told and re-told by those of the greatest age. Ten bears
given, nine bears cherished and displayed for a lifetime.
No one in Court would deny an
answer if you asked them directly about the fate of that first precious bear,
but the story might come out from behind glazing eyes. Deeply wounding moments
and deeply proud ones can sometimes reflect similarly in remembering faces, and
in this particular case the two are so closely conjoined that it can make
emotion difficult to swallow -- but if you are patient and willing to sit for a
while, they might invite you to stay for tea, pick up one of those treasured
bears, and place it in your hands.
For
fifteen years, they would say, children in Court enjoy a peaceful, playful
life. Oh, they go to school, they learn to cook and build and are taught to
participate in other household work, but their cultural burdens are low. Their
air is clean, their home is warm and they fear neither stranger nor disease.
On
the eve of their fifteenth birthday, every Courtier is brought to a very old
building in the center of town. It can be an intimidating process for these
kids, especially if they are the oldest among their siblings or friends. The
edifice is used for nothing other than the ceremony on the evening and day of a
fifteenth birthday, leaving it empty for months at a time. As with the fifth
birthday celebration, many neighbours, local dignitaries and family members are
in attendance to support their young loved one -- but the mood on these
occasions is sober, somber and solemn.
Surrounded
by a great cloud of witnesses, a layer of familiar faces as thick as smoke, the
birthday child is led into the middle of the open space by their same-gendered
guardian. Four chairs and two elders await their arrival: the Orator is seated
to the left of this parental figure, and the Magistrate on the right. The child
faces them, alone.
There
is a moment of silence.
"My
child," his father or her mother would begin, reciting with precision the
same words they received on the eve of their own fifteenth year. "Tonight
marks a very special moment in your life; you are mere hours from adulthood and
the full weight of social responsibility in Court. The time has come for you to
live out in reality all of the theories we have trained into you and which, up
to this point, have almost made sense. Your age of innocence has come to a
triumphant end. The covenantal burden is upon you."
On
this cue the Orator would stand, step to the seated child and place a strong
hand on one shoulder. With a voice to the crowd he would carefully repeat an
old story - the oldest anyone knew, entrusted word after word by the man by whom
the responsibility was previously carried. It was the history of the whole
world in the language of its making, in the elaborate poetry of simple,
well-woven words. Every facet of character was unveiled in its turn: the gentle
affection of an artistic creator, whole mind engaged in the project of life;
the hopeful pursuit of an invested lover, whole heart devoted to courting His
muse; the acute attention and protection of a doting father, whole soul
consumed by the security and peace and purity of His children. The Courtier God
was all of these things and more: He was the arbourist of their orchards and
the mason of their rocky land; He blew wind to the sea when the fish needed
catching and when the bows turned homeward again He shifted the currents towards
the shore; He was the crafter of law, the sustainer of light and the architect
of their dome-sheltered realm, after which design only one building was
patterned. Like the myths of an Atlantean world, lost but living beneath deep
ocean waves, Court was protected by an atmosphere sealed away from the rest of
humanity.
"And
He has provided for all of our needs," continued the Orator in his
thundering way, "by giving us the blessing of the Flowering Ivy!" The
crowd erupted in shouts of praise, swelling like a brass crescendo in an
orchestra, vibrating louder and louder as their excitement and their adoration
reached its climax with a sudden and united cry of "GLORY TO THE
MASTER!"
The
Orator sat as the Magistrate stood, taking up the same commissioning posture
next to the youth. "It is concerning the Ivy that we assemble here
tonight," he said with a weight in his words. "The Ivy which grows
around the perimeter of our land springs a tiny, cream-white blossom every
year. We harvest from between its petals the saffron-like fibers of material
oxygen. Pure, delicate and of immeasurable value, this precious silk is thin as
cloud and strong as canvas. From these threads we create the front-door filters
that bring to each home the Breath of Life; the woven cloth of this Ivy
smolders in the Memorial Chamber without end as a physical blessing to the
inhabitants of the whole world, keeping us alive in the most fundamental of
ways; and it is the Vine that gives life to the Body of every child's
fifth-birthday bear."
From
the doorway, the child's second parental guardian emerges carrying a small
package, beautifully wrapped in gold paper. Sometimes the gift would be
box-shaped and sometimes it would be wrapped loosely in a few layers of
newspaper below its lovely metallic sheen. It was a bear. It was *the* bear.
Everything
else in the room ceased its movement as the young man or young woman became
transfixed a second time by the soft little creature coddled in his or her
arms. It was a tender thing, full of grape-juice memories that leave a
permanent stain on the affections of your mind.
"With
this gift came the promise of security and protection, but the gift itself was
the fulfillment of that promise. The heart of the gift sustained you in a
special way through your journey of growth and maturity. Now that you are
grown, now that you have matured, now that this gift has completed everything
it was designed to do, now the time has come. You must sacrifice this gift,
precious and loved, to the One who holds you preciously with a far surpassing
love. He has given much... and tonight you must give some of it back."
Like
a frost that begins around the edges of a winter window pane, sadness creeps
into the eyes of every Courtier child who hears those words. Understanding dawns
slowly: something is required of them; a sacrifice must be made. The Magistrate
continues his speech with a mechanical crispness that is unique to matters of
law, but it is heard as through a fog, or as though spoken softly from far
away. "Are you ready?" asks the Magistrate. Broken daze, eyes and
thoughts refocused. "Are you ready," came the refrain. There was only
one answer to give. "Yes," says the child, "I am ready."
"Then
come."
The
sun was rising as the child, his parents, the Orator and the Magistrate led the
way from the Great Hall to the Memorial Chamber. A white smoke rose from the
center courtyard, a vapourous flag of peace that signaled the continual
alignment of God and Man. Once a year this pale, translucent wisp will flash
with the brilliance of a lightening strike; once a year the altar does not
simply smolder - it burns.
The
air pressure changed as the large, gold-embroidered double doors of the
Memorial Chamber opened before them. The tips of your fingers had only to brush
against the mahogany handles before they parted in two as if crafted of the
lightest silk, as if by enchantment. Behind the doors was a great courtyard of
open-space design. Furnishings were simple: an extremely tall pillar of steel
towered in the center; a long, high table to the far left that shone
metallically in the natural sunlight of the place; off to the right was a
structure that resembled an enormous cardboard box with something spilling out
of it. On the opposite side of the hall another set of doors could almost be
seen, camouflaged against the wall and overgrown with an ivy - the Flowering
Ivy. The roots of the Ivy grew deeply in the room beyond and the vine of it
spread out from there, wrapping around the skirting edge of their domed world
and back to this very spot, back to the source.
All
of these things could be seen from the open doorway, and from a Courtier's
earliest childhood memories they are able to piece together the basic layout of
the Memorial Chamber from this vantage point, but children are not permitted to
cross the threshold.
Stepping
into this place for the first time as a youth of barely fifteen is an
overwhelming experience for many. A freshly broadened understanding of
sacrifice made every inch of the place feel weighted with a sudden gravity. The
stone floor had been worn smooth by the tireless treading of devoted Courtiers
over time immemorial. Their ancestors had walked these paths. This was the
sacred space of history's preservation.
With
only the bear for company the child would cautiously cross to the table. On
busy days the decision of where to begin can be a trick, but on this day it was
quiet and only one other person was in the whole cavernous room, standing
behind the table. Smiling, but with a worrying pity in his eyes, the older man
would beckon the newcomer to himself.
His
uniform was covered in threads and bits of cloth and tufts of soft fabric fur.
Stuffing was caught in the ridges of his corduroy pants, on his hat and under
his fingernails. All over the table and all over the ground the remnant
evidence of thousands of bears could be seen. When most people encounter this
for the first time they instinctively take a nervous step back in retreat...
But there is only forward from this place. Swallow your fear, force your feet
to move, hand over the thing you treasure the very most in the world so that
you can fulfill an old vow to an older God... so that you can remain in
alignment.
The
bear is placed with trembling hands on the cool steel of the high table. The Attendant
nods ominously to the pair of large fabric scissors that everyone works so hard
at first to ignore, but there is no more room for pretending not to see things.
"Make
one incision," says the older man, "along the back, towards the head.
We want to save as much fabric as we can."
"What
will you do with it?"
"Make
another bear. Another bear for another child."
The
scissors are heavier than they look, and the fur is often thicker than you
might expect. All told, making that first cut is a hard thing both physically
and emotionally with the only merciful consolation being a swift accomplishment
of the task. Before permission to leave can be granted, the Attendant must take
the bear by the scruff of its neck and empty it of the life-giving material. He
will then brush the fur of its pelt, snip the threads that hold on its eyes and
cut off the ribbon collar. The skin of the bear is sent across the courtyard to
the Crate to be recycled into new animals; the fibrous insides are added to the
Post; the ribbon and both eyes are placed with the firmness of love into the
right-hand palm of the young man or woman across the table. "Off to the
next doors," they are told by the Elder Attendant, "you must leave by
the exit beyond them."
Two
buttons, a bow and all the memories of a lifetime drag their feet across the
stone floor of the Memorial Chamber. The doors that separate the outer courts
from the heart are so small and slim that you might mistake them for a cupboard
if you came across them in someone's home. They were covered in Ivy, carved and
cultivated. The knot of branches looks so tangled that a wave of discouragement
often stuns those attempting to pass through - but eventually, as with the
scissors, it becomes obvious that something must be done: a knob turned, a
panel pushed against, the Ivy brushed back gently as a mother might find
herself tucking her daughter's hair behind one ear. Each person approaches this
door a little differently, but unlike so many things in life this door responds
to the simple faith that something will happen; everyone who makes a move is
rewarded.
A
short flight of wide, shallow stairs descends to the middle of the room and
rises again at the far side. The space is lit by the glow of a hundred candles
encircled around the stone chimney that stands proudly in the center; directly
under the chimney draft, sitting on a heated plate of gold, was the tightly
wound ball of the precious thread. A white smoke that swelled and faded as
calmly as a sleeping breath rose as it smoldered. Along the ceiling, down three
walls and growing along and up from the dirt floor was the Flowering Ivy in its
perplexing perpetual bloom. On the only wall uncovered by the Vine was the
memorial that gave the Chamber its title: a hundred thousand button eyes stared
down from the wall, each different from the next, each mounted on a short
ribbon bow. There were no names, no dates, no labels of any kind; each eye and
its ribbon stood alone, a testimony to the bear and the child that placed it
there.
On a
slender pedestal centered under the memorial is found three things: a threaded
needle, knot tied; a clasp of the sort used for brooches or decorative
medallions; and a fine pair of scissors in every way unlike the coarse sheers
of the High Table in the Outer Court. Engraved into the side of one silver
blade was a simple inscription:
“A time to tear, and a time to sew.”
“A time to tear, and a time to sew.”
Cut
the ribbon. Center the button. Affix the pin. Tie the knot. Follow the silent
instructions of those who have gone before you, ease the transition of those
who will come in your wake. It is the way of this world; it is the symbol of obedience
and participation worn over the heart. Emerging from that small, dark room is
the first milestone of maturity, impossible to forget.
Your teacup has long been empty, your face drawn taught with compassion. “Tragic,” you might say. “Tragic indeed,” says your host, “and brutal and beautiful. For centuries on end the people of Court have been repeating these ancient traditions, and some still do.” “Some?” “Yes, some. For most of us, Maria’s bear changed everything.”
Your teacup has long been empty, your face drawn taught with compassion. “Tragic,” you might say. “Tragic indeed,” says your host, “and brutal and beautiful. For centuries on end the people of Court have been repeating these ancient traditions, and some still do.” “Some?” “Yes, some. For most of us, Maria’s bear changed everything.”
Maria
was a timid girl, rarely in the middle of things, never in trouble, never one
to fight or fuss. She was born on the Night of the Flame when the Ivy’s
annually collected fiber is set alight and the whole world celebrates. Every
year she participated in this celebration with the added joy of a new bear and
a belly full of cake, but on the evening that she was to turn fifteen, the
night before the Festival took place, her whole world went sideways.
“Are you ready?” asked the Magistrate. “No,” said Maria. She looked at the opposing authorities. Their faces were stunned, their script interrupted for the first time in living memory. “No?” her mother asked nervously. “Of course not!” said Maria, horrified that they would insist she give up her bear. “He is special! He’s not like other bears!” “What are you talking about, girl!” Her mother asked, angry and afraid at once. She flushed. “He …he can breathe.”
“Are you ready?” asked the Magistrate. “No,” said Maria. She looked at the opposing authorities. Their faces were stunned, their script interrupted for the first time in living memory. “No?” her mother asked nervously. “Of course not!” said Maria, horrified that they would insist she give up her bear. “He is special! He’s not like other bears!” “What are you talking about, girl!” Her mother asked, angry and afraid at once. She flushed. “He …he can breathe.”
The
onlookers laughed and shot looks across the room to each other in tones of
derision. “Grow up, Maria!” shouted a boy from the group. “Let it go,” came
another. The Magistrate called for silence and addressed the little girl.
“These bears can’t breathe, they assist people to breathe. They filter the air,
and that is all. Tomorrow morning, your bear will purify the atmosphere along
with the remnants of all other bears sacrificed this year. It is special to you, but it is not unique. It’s just a
bear.” “You’re wrong!” she shouted
and jumped up out of her chair. “You don’t understand! He can breathe! He can!”
Two of Maria’s neighbours came into the circle to try and settle the situation. She was growing hysterical, but the Magistrate was insistent. “The ceremonies cannot be delayed!” he thundered. “Bring her to the Memorial Chamber!” The men held her fast and carried her out the door. Her mother and father followed closely, carrying the bear. All the way to the High Table Maria continued to struggle and scream. “I won’t give him up! I won’t kill him! He can breathe! He’s BREATHING! STOP! Please!” The Magistrate was deaf to her cries.
When they arrived, he ordered that the men put Maria down and make her to stand up alone. “Take the scissors,” he demanded. “I WILL NOT!” she yelled at him, no longer acting with any reserve on emotion. “YOU WILL OBEY!” He yelled back. “MURDER!” she screamed, and his voice turned to ice. “Fine,” said the Magistrate, shoving the sheers into the Attendant’s hands. “You do it. Make her watch.”
Two of Maria’s neighbours came into the circle to try and settle the situation. She was growing hysterical, but the Magistrate was insistent. “The ceremonies cannot be delayed!” he thundered. “Bring her to the Memorial Chamber!” The men held her fast and carried her out the door. Her mother and father followed closely, carrying the bear. All the way to the High Table Maria continued to struggle and scream. “I won’t give him up! I won’t kill him! He can breathe! He’s BREATHING! STOP! Please!” The Magistrate was deaf to her cries.
When they arrived, he ordered that the men put Maria down and make her to stand up alone. “Take the scissors,” he demanded. “I WILL NOT!” she yelled at him, no longer acting with any reserve on emotion. “YOU WILL OBEY!” He yelled back. “MURDER!” she screamed, and his voice turned to ice. “Fine,” said the Magistrate, shoving the sheers into the Attendant’s hands. “You do it. Make her watch.”
The
Attendant did not speak. He took the scissors, made the incision and emptied
the bear. Maria was beside herself, throat raw, consumed by grief. The
Magistrate took the pelt from the Attendant and held it in front of her face.
“This is the covenant, girl. This is how the world works. It is cruel, it is
true.” He popped off the bear’s button eyes and tore the ribbon from its limp
body. He dropped them on the ground at her feet, flung the skin towards the
Crate with bitter indignation and left her to weep alone. The men who remained
escorted her to the Inner Chamber and softly closed her in. As the latch shut,
the Flowering Ivy shivered and every white blossom fell from the vine. The
Attendant, still holding the sheers, began to cry; Maria’s parents sank to
their knees in shock; the Magistrate retuned to his office and slammed the door
behind him.
In the cities, people went to their front doors and tapped at the filters that seemed to have stopped working. The gatherers returned home with empty baskets and fallen hearts. As a result, a record number of citizens showed up to celebrate the Night of the Flame at the gates of the Memorial Chamber. Maria, mute with sorrow, stood at an edge and observed as the Orator and the Magistrate took center stage. They both spoke about the importance of Sacrifice and the deep, unchanging virtue of obedience to their ancient traditions. After their speeches, the Elder Attendant struck a match and set it to the fiber-covered Pole – but instead of the familiar white cloud, a toxic black smoke billowed into the sky. The towering testimony of human devotion turned to pitch and tar. The crowds fled for shelter afraid, confused and terribly short of breath.
In the cities, people went to their front doors and tapped at the filters that seemed to have stopped working. The gatherers returned home with empty baskets and fallen hearts. As a result, a record number of citizens showed up to celebrate the Night of the Flame at the gates of the Memorial Chamber. Maria, mute with sorrow, stood at an edge and observed as the Orator and the Magistrate took center stage. They both spoke about the importance of Sacrifice and the deep, unchanging virtue of obedience to their ancient traditions. After their speeches, the Elder Attendant struck a match and set it to the fiber-covered Pole – but instead of the familiar white cloud, a toxic black smoke billowed into the sky. The towering testimony of human devotion turned to pitch and tar. The crowds fled for shelter afraid, confused and terribly short of breath.
What the people did not know and what the Magistrate and his allies could not believe is that Maria’s bear had been special and it did breathe. It was filled with threads harvested from the Ivy growing in the Inner Chamber, right from the Source. It was infused with a supremely holy vein of energy that remained mysteriously connected to the Vine, and when the fibers were destroyed, the Flowering Ivy suffered the wound. Maria had treasured her bear with every drop of devotion and loyalty she possessed, knowing that he had preserved her life in a way she couldn’t articulate. He had been a comfort in fear and a hope in sadness; He’d loved her back. While the rest of the world was breathing shallow breaths, she filled her lungs full and deep; though even her parents suffered from the withering of the Ivy, Maria showed no symptoms of failing health.
Courtiers struggled through one miserable night after abandoning the Flame. At home with their families they prayed to their God for mercy. At dawn, the hour of forfeit and exhaustion when even the Magistrate had fallen to his knees in a plea to the Divine Sustainer, a mighty cracking was heard throughout the land. The Flowering Ivy, as through stretching awake after a good long sleep, sprouted fresh new vines that shot through the city streets weaving around telephone poles and wrapping cars, creeping under front doors and through open windows. The Land of Court became a jungle of bright green vines and tiny white flowers in less than nine minutes. Everyone took a deep breath of relief and ran to the Memorial Chamber to praise in chorus.
Maria got their first. The Magistrate was close behind. A crowd pressed in past the gates and gathered around the High Table. The stone floor of the Outer Court was a carpet of vines that had swallowed the Crate and crept up the legs of the High Table. Its steel surface shone like crystal and the butchering sheers lay broken upon it, one half at each end. Between them lay Maria’s bear, eyes in place, ribbon restored, back stitched with a fine crimson thread. Everyone saw it there, breathing, and then nobody saw it. The bear disappeared.
“As the years have passed,” explains your host, “Courtiers have become divided on what caused the Great Bloom. It seems obvious to me, but some have chosen to hold to the ancient traditions despite the miracle I have just described. Some saw the Bloom as proof that the rituals were ineffectual all along and have since abandoned the work of honouring the Creator in every way. It’s a heart-wrenching decision. Breaks this old heart.” The elder extends a hand for the bear you are still holding and puts it back on the shelf. “So, what happens now?” you ask.
“The Ivy grows thick in every house and up every street, and the air in Court is filtered now even outside; the Breath of Life is everywhere and abundant, and the silk harvest reaps more every year! Instead of padding only the fifth birthday bear with our precious fibers, now every bear is stuffed with the stuff, and the Night of the Flame has been, shall we say, extinguished. My granddaughters will still be called to give up their first bears, but as a gift to another child and not as a sacrifice to the Great Provider. To most of us in Court it is clear that He no longer requires us to abide by all of the old traditions. We believe there is something else He has asked for – our daily faith.”
The elder Courtier places an Ivy-covered book in your hands and begins to gather up the empty tea things. “Read this a bit,” comes the gentle suggestion. “I’ll put on the kettle.”
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Ten Cent Wedding Dress
Exactly one week ago tonight I drove home with my Mum and my future Mother-in-law from a trip to Toronto... with my WEDDING DRESS. This, folks, is something that I have been saving for since high school. In the eight-ish years since I began, I am proud to say that I haven't spent a dime.
Well, maybe five or six in that time, but with a burdensome reluctance.
In my room at my parent's house I have an old five gallon water jug that I found at a second hand store somewhere for the purpose of having somewhere lovely to store all my dimes. About a month ago Ben and I sat down with a couple bags of paper coin rollers (and a delicate kitchen scale to double-check) and started counting. By the time we finished we'd made it to just shy of $650! Over the next few days we raided our cars, closets and couches (and Tim and Carolyn gave me a jar of dimes that they have clearly been working on for a long time too!) and made it to my long-time goal of $700. And what did I do with all that money? I bought a wedding dress. For cancer.
Attention all awesome women (and men who one day plan to marry one)!
If you haven't heard of the Bride's Project, listen to me. They're a not-for-profit "social enterprise" organization run completely by volunteers that collects donated wedding gowns from brides and designers (if a style has been discontinued), sells them for half of what they are worth and DONATES 100% OF THE PROCEEDS. Check out their website.
I can't remember who told me about this first [credit claimed by the beautiful Sarah Jones], but I loved it instantly. I knew that I wanted my dress to come out and my dimes to go in to this magical place. So, last Sunday, I went in with my $700 budget and found a $700 dress. It was perfect except for one last tiny detail... I forgot about taxes.
So, I'm $91 short of accomplishing my dream of paying for my wedding dress in dimes. Usually I would have ended this post before explaining that, but because the Internet is making me bold I've decided to throw it out to you, my online community or supporters. If you open your wallet today and find that a couple of blue-nose-backed coins fall into your hand, would you consider donating them to me? If you buy your coffee tomorrow and they hand you a dime with your double-double, would you set it aside with our marriage in mind? And if all these 1.75gram gifts add up to more than the cost of my dress, I will pass it along to the amazing Bride's Project people so they can keep going strong. I want to bring them a couple of dresses I have anyway.
So there you have it, everybody. Pictures available in 89 DAYS!?!
Well, maybe five or six in that time, but with a burdensome reluctance.
In my room at my parent's house I have an old five gallon water jug that I found at a second hand store somewhere for the purpose of having somewhere lovely to store all my dimes. About a month ago Ben and I sat down with a couple bags of paper coin rollers (and a delicate kitchen scale to double-check) and started counting. By the time we finished we'd made it to just shy of $650! Over the next few days we raided our cars, closets and couches (and Tim and Carolyn gave me a jar of dimes that they have clearly been working on for a long time too!) and made it to my long-time goal of $700. And what did I do with all that money? I bought a wedding dress. For cancer.
Attention all awesome women (and men who one day plan to marry one)!
If you haven't heard of the Bride's Project, listen to me. They're a not-for-profit "social enterprise" organization run completely by volunteers that collects donated wedding gowns from brides and designers (if a style has been discontinued), sells them for half of what they are worth and DONATES 100% OF THE PROCEEDS. Check out their website.
I can't remember who told me about this first [credit claimed by the beautiful Sarah Jones], but I loved it instantly. I knew that I wanted my dress to come out and my dimes to go in to this magical place. So, last Sunday, I went in with my $700 budget and found a $700 dress. It was perfect except for one last tiny detail... I forgot about taxes.
So, I'm $91 short of accomplishing my dream of paying for my wedding dress in dimes. Usually I would have ended this post before explaining that, but because the Internet is making me bold I've decided to throw it out to you, my online community or supporters. If you open your wallet today and find that a couple of blue-nose-backed coins fall into your hand, would you consider donating them to me? If you buy your coffee tomorrow and they hand you a dime with your double-double, would you set it aside with our marriage in mind? And if all these 1.75gram gifts add up to more than the cost of my dress, I will pass it along to the amazing Bride's Project people so they can keep going strong. I want to bring them a couple of dresses I have anyway.
So there you have it, everybody. Pictures available in 89 DAYS!?!
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Wool and Wax
Cornelius Splinter noticed
things. He could trace the unusual patterns made by the wind blowing over a
great mound of snow; he could point out the differences between two colonies of
ants, busy building their neighbouring hills; and he saw in the sunsets each
delicate hue, untamable in brilliance and variety. If anyone had noticed him,
they would have said he had eyes as big as dinner plates, or as wide as two
full moons, but nobody ever noticed him. Their eyes were open without seeing,
their vision clear without the gift of clarity. Cornelius Splinter was special.
He didn’t say much. In fact,
he didn’t say anything. He had lived in a house once where he was called The Quiet Boy, and everyone assumed he
was unable to speak; so silent a life did he lead. Speechless, but not
thoughtless. In his mind, Cornelius Splinter was the Poet Laureate of his age,
which was eight. He was a composer of magnificent music that marveled audiences
so affectingly that they were left, to turn the phrase, dumbstruck. He was a
painter of fine art, a sculptor in the tradition of ancient masters. He was, in
sum, a genius.
But outside this safe space
inside his own head people bellowed discouraging things. The man who paid him
for lighting the lamps always looked angry and called him Sinecure as he dropped candles and matches and one loaf of bread
into the boy’s open hands. The young lad didn’t know what the word meant, but
the man’s tone said, “A waste of good grain and bad wax” when they met. He
traded some of his matches for potatoes with the grocer’s wife who said he was filthy as sin itself and wouldn’t let
him play with the garden boy who was about his size. He was distrusted by
everyone in daylight and ignored completely in shadow, as one might ignore an
abandoned parcel sat off in a corner, or a bit of rubbish on the side of the
road. He did not enter their thoughts.
Every evening at dusk he
took to London’s cobbled streets with a mission to light the lamps from one end
of the city to the other, replacing the candles, cleaning out ash and trimming
wicks as each was in need. In every case he brought light into darkness and
heat to the cold. Every small flame brightened his own heart and buoyed his
spirits. He could shimmy up a lamppost like a squirrel up a tree and perch at
the top without fear of falling. Cornelius Splinter loved those moments
dearest, watching the people moving about from high above the street. And it
was from this perspective that he first saw Anna.
She was beautiful.
She wore a blossom-coloured
dress and leaf-coloured gloves and a rather uneasy expression on her face. She
was pacing back and forth in the light a stone’s throw from where he was
watching. Every few seconds she would rub her gloved fingers together and make
a quiet tisking sound with her lips. She was calling for a cat.
Cornelius Splinter noticed
four things all at once. First, he saw that the sun had disappeared over the
horizon and night was coming in quickly; second, that no fewer than three
kittens were shyly answering the girl’s call; third, this little lady was
decidedly alone and would not be safe without a companion much longer; and
finally, for all her beautiful clothing and tidy, proper appearance, she wasn’t
wearing any shoes.
He dropped gently to the
ground, landing in the floodlight of the lamp he’d been kindling. The girl and
the growing litter at her feet all started at the noise. “Hello?” she called,
melodically as though her voice was the shivering of a chime. “Who is there?
Can I trust you?” The boy pulled a grey candle out of his pocket and held it
out in front of him, extended towards the girl. With his other hand he loosed a
match from its box and caught the wick aflame. It came off like a magic trick
in the young lady’s eyes and without intending to do so she exchanged her
apprehension for curiosity and wonder. She drew near.
“I’m Anna,” said Anna with a
curtsey that would have put a ballerina to shame. “My father is Yes Sir and my
mother is called My Lady, or Lemon, or Sweetheart, or Darling, but I know her
name is really Anna too. We live…” and she brought her finger to level, but
found she had nothing familiar to point out. She turned all around in circles,
eventually letting her arm and her countenance fall in one go. “We live in a
tall house between other houses, but not on this street. I’m afraid I’ve become
quite jumbled, really. I came out looking for my cat.”
The quizzical look on his
face was so clear that she couldn’t help but elaborate. “It got out the
window,” said Anna as a crimson blush flooded her features. “Well, I opened the
window, really. I was kneeling at my bedside you see, just as I ought, and then
one of my eyes popped open because I heard something make a very loud sound
indeed! I simply had to see if Saint Nicholas had come to call, so I opened my
window ever so slightly as to listen with greater care, and my cat leapt up to
the sill and out to the ground before I could even blink! It wasn’t a long
drop, so I followed him this far before I lost sight. I didn’t have time to go fetch
my slippers. They are in line by the fire tonight because it’s Christmas Eve.
Did you know it is Christmas Eve right now?”
Cornelius Splinter shook his head. When he had lived in the house long ago he’d heard vague whisperings about firesides and presents and a generous man in red, but those blurry ideas had been gathering dust like the rest of his small frame in the years between home and here. It is much more work to remember than observe.
Cornelius Splinter shook his head. When he had lived in the house long ago he’d heard vague whisperings about firesides and presents and a generous man in red, but those blurry ideas had been gathering dust like the rest of his small frame in the years between home and here. It is much more work to remember than observe.
Anna’s cat didn’t take long
to rejoin his mistress. The three of them toured the streets together,
Cornelius Splinter walking with his candle outstretched like the front man of a
parade. The light shimmered and shone off the frosted bricks beneath their
feet. When they found her house, he helped Anna climb back in through her open
window, cat and all. Soon as the pane of glass slid back into place, the boy
ran to the lamppost across the road from Anna’s house, scampered up the pole,
put his candle inside, lit the wick and polished the iron with his sleeve until
it glowed like the silver moon and the golden sun all at once. Then he waved at
her window, dropped down to the street and disappeared into the deepening
night.
Every morning after their
adventure together Anna would stare out her window and wonder what had become
of the mysterious elf-child she had met in the street on Christmas Eve. She
thought she could see him, sometimes, clinging to the top of the streetlight
across from her house, and she would wave. But the boy, if he was truly flesh
and not phantom, never waved back. “He might be a shadow,” she thought to
herself. “A trick of the candlelight.” But her heart couldn’t believe her own
logic, because whenever she peered out at the lamppost she found it already
shining away and making the whole street merrier for its glow.
Cornelius Splinter used
three times as much wax and at least twice as much time tending to his labours
at Anna’s house. He had to replace the candle several times a week even though
candles were made rather differently in those days and lasted a good long time
if the wick was kept trim. The light burned day and night and charmed the
entire neightbourhood, not just the little girl who had taken his affections
along with the cat. Rain did not stop him, snow failed to give him pause and while
summer’s scorching sunshine made climbing the pole a painful chore, the boy,
now nine, could not be dissuaded from his task. Every day for a year he walked
to Anna’s house, right to Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve, when hope
and persistence and love and magic all meld, he climbed the lamppost across
from Anna’s tall house. He breathed a deep breath of the icy winter air and let
it out with a sigh. The now familiar home was decorated once again with
twinkling white light. The house looked like heaven, star-filled and beautiful.
And then Cornelius Splinter noticed something peculiar… heaven’s door stood
open. A small child burst out of it, dancing towards him in leaf-green gloves
and a long dress that moved about like a flower in the breeze. As soon as she
made it to the light under the lamppost she leapt up with both feet and landed
in a sudden stop. She was laughing.
“Hello!” called Anna to the
boy perched above. “Come here, I have to give you a gift.” He spiraled down the
pole with the grace of a maple key and stood beside her. She looked like an
angel. The girl was carrying a large box in brown paper. Cornelius Splinter’s
full-moon eyes grew wider than ever as she held it out towards him. “It’s for
you,” she said, encouraging him to take it by giving the package a bit of a
shake. “I’ve spent the whole year making it.”
He took a long time just
looking at Anna before he actually received the present. He was soaking it in,
absorbing every detail of the moment. Then he carefully unwrapped the box. The
box was full of paper. The paper was full of wool.
A simple knitted scarf lay
folded carefully inside. He noticed the uneven tension of the stitches in each
row; he noticed the differences in width from beginning to end; he noticed
large lumps where the yarn had run short and more needed to be tied in to
lengthen the project; and he noticed that the rich green colour matched to
Anna’s gloves. It was perfect. The little boy smiled so broadly that every
single one of his teeth could be seen, even his molars. She beamed at him and
flung the scarf around his neck many times. He could barely move by the time
she was through, which had the convenient effect of securing his emotions in
place. Had his trembling lips been uncovered, he would have certainly drowned
them both in a thousand tears of joy.
Anna’s family moved out of
the city before the next Christmas Eve could arrive. He knew it was coming, he
had seen it before. The night before they left, Cornelius Splinter climbed the
post across from Anna’s house and stayed there all night, talking to the angels
about the one who lived across the street. When morning dawned he lit a new
candle, humbly walked up to Anna’s front door and left it burning there on the
stoop as a token of gratitude to the one who had noticed him and had chosen to
be kind. Two gifts given, both treasured forever: wool and wax. And magic.
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
The Comforter
At the foot of a small hill, at the edge of a smaller
village, stands a tiny house with only one room. The woman who lives there is
kindly and dear and nearly as old as the rock that surrounds her. She sits on a
stool and sits at a table both carved from the same fallen tree, and at her
feet you'll find baskets overflowing with the tail ends of a tale, with scraps
of thought and bits of string, various patches and fragmented phrases, and
bobbles and buttons and conjunctions by pairs -- the woman was a Comforter,
after all -- and nothing was to be wasted.
Early each morning a girl-child
from the village would walk the cobbled path to her home and knock at the door.
She would come, slowly, and greet the young lass with a smile and a nod and a
mirror. She perched on her stool while the child ran nimble fingers through
long white hair, weaving each beautiful strand into one perfect braid that fell
over her shoulder and down almost to the floor. For her pains the girl-child
received a tender kiss on the top of her head, and one precious word to carry
with her for the day. When the task was complete the girl would go home and
leave the old woman to sit, and to wait, and to sew. She was never alone very
long.
As the story goes, a young businessman with a clean,
handsome suit came to the village about two hundred years ago. His name was
Edward Clark, and he worked with the famous Mr. Singer making machines designed
to hasten the production of needlework. When the young Edward Clark heard
stories of a woman who was able to quilt with words, he decided to seek her
out. He put the heavy metal machine in a large wooden crate. Then he slid a
narrow, burgundy box off a high shelf in his workroom. It was so slight you
would never have seen it, and so covered in dust that it must have been there a long time. He put that box in the pocket of his greatcoat, and
the crate on the wagon behind his horse. Two boxes, two riding companions, two
weeks of travel over all variety of terrain, and a hundred untamable questions
that evaporated as the door to the small cottage at the edge of the smaller
village opened, and his eyes met hers.
She stood quite still, with one long braid of pure white
hair draped over her shoulder. She was wearing the softest smile he had ever
seen. He felt instantly welcome, inexplicably at peace. She asked him in and he
filled a chair. Then he uncovered his gift and explained its purpose.
"This is a marvel," she smiled. "I have
never seen a thing like it in all of my days, and my days have been many and my
experience vast. What can I give to you in exchange for such a treasure?"
He gently plied the box from his pocket and held it out across the palm of his
hand, but she shook her head. "Read to me."
Like so many before, Edward Clark nervously opened the box and removed a folded pack of papers, yellow with age. He smoothed the creases open with trembling hands and quietly began to speak the words aloud. In his agitation he did not notice the old woman reach into the air and catch the first word, like a child might chase after a butterfly. She twirled the letters around in her fingers, pulling them gently and spreading them thin. Soon enough she had worked it into a fine thread, as crimson and bright as the blush as stealing over his face. The delicate threads were warm agains her skin. This will go North one day, she thought.
His story was about a woman, of course. She was beautiful, he was kind. Their romance was full and fresh and wonderful and the old woman smiled as she used his unraveled tale to lace together patches of fire-coloured cloth. Phrase by phrase it came together, stitch by pause and breath by spool. When he came to the very end of the very last page, Edward Clark looked up.
He wasn't the first to gasp in wonder at what he saw. Nearly everyone does. The woman looked like she was sitting in a sunset. She looked like an angel, or a fairy of magical days long past. The comforter that she had crafted while he shared his heart was radiating light and heat, melting away fear and loneliness just by the sight of it. She stood to her feet and wrapped the blanket around his body. It was the heat of a summer, the embrace of a lover and the smell of a wood-burning stove; it was strong tea on a cool morning and the country melody of crickets and fireflies. He sighed.
"What will you do with it?" he asked.
"I will send it away, to a place far off where moments like this rarely come. In that place it will rekindle lost loves and spark to new ideas. In that place it will bring hope and joy. It will bring comfort."
"Thank you," he said.
"Thank you," she said.
And that was two hundred years ago. In the time between the Comforter has listened to thousands of stories, each producing a uniquely powerful quilt. Ice-cold blue and white covers fashioned from ghost stories, dangerous adventures and Christmas in foreign lands, sent off to Chilean and Peruvian villages; green blankets as soft as moss and as fresh as an early spring breeze, sent to the desert nations of Yemen and Egypt; beautiful comforters designed to inspire thoughts beyond the self, to cool the sun-beaten and warm the sun-starved. Though she lives a quiet and isolated life, her gifts have been carried by faithful hands to homes in remote mountain caverns and frostbitten plains. "Read to me," she says. Speak and your story will be heard. Open your heart so that another can share in your joys and sorrows, pleasures and fears.
You never know what neighbouring soul may be sorely in need of a comforter.
His story was about a woman, of course. She was beautiful, he was kind. Their romance was full and fresh and wonderful and the old woman smiled as she used his unraveled tale to lace together patches of fire-coloured cloth. Phrase by phrase it came together, stitch by pause and breath by spool. When he came to the very end of the very last page, Edward Clark looked up.
He wasn't the first to gasp in wonder at what he saw. Nearly everyone does. The woman looked like she was sitting in a sunset. She looked like an angel, or a fairy of magical days long past. The comforter that she had crafted while he shared his heart was radiating light and heat, melting away fear and loneliness just by the sight of it. She stood to her feet and wrapped the blanket around his body. It was the heat of a summer, the embrace of a lover and the smell of a wood-burning stove; it was strong tea on a cool morning and the country melody of crickets and fireflies. He sighed.
"What will you do with it?" he asked.
"I will send it away, to a place far off where moments like this rarely come. In that place it will rekindle lost loves and spark to new ideas. In that place it will bring hope and joy. It will bring comfort."
"Thank you," he said.
"Thank you," she said.
And that was two hundred years ago. In the time between the Comforter has listened to thousands of stories, each producing a uniquely powerful quilt. Ice-cold blue and white covers fashioned from ghost stories, dangerous adventures and Christmas in foreign lands, sent off to Chilean and Peruvian villages; green blankets as soft as moss and as fresh as an early spring breeze, sent to the desert nations of Yemen and Egypt; beautiful comforters designed to inspire thoughts beyond the self, to cool the sun-beaten and warm the sun-starved. Though she lives a quiet and isolated life, her gifts have been carried by faithful hands to homes in remote mountain caverns and frostbitten plains. "Read to me," she says. Speak and your story will be heard. Open your heart so that another can share in your joys and sorrows, pleasures and fears.
You never know what neighbouring soul may be sorely in need of a comforter.
Monday, 7 October 2013
First Cup of the Day
Sometimes I wake up in the morning ready to do nothing more than crawl back under the covers like a jostled black bear in January. Simply and stubbornly unwilling to stumble around my apartment in search of clothing and toothpaste and contacts and a drink, I do, on occasion, give in to the desire for rest over responsibility. On those days when slumber caused either by true fatigue or laziness drags me slowly back to bed, my imagination stays up, cooing and coddling my mind.
Stories are born in those moments.
Fragmented phrases and ideas in slivers, a frayed conversation and a weather-beaten setting for adventure or romance or danger and death. Characters woven out of cobwebs in my mind, laced up with a concept, bones built of plot and conclusion.
All of this happens before the tea, of course.
I have a mug, over there on the shelf. The teabag is up in a box behind me. I started the kettle when I started this post, and all three will call my senses back to a lucid reality in just a few more minutes. I do need it, the logic, but I so enjoy this fantastic, hazy fog my mind is in right now. Mornings -- even rainy mornings -- are my most creative time. But I have a very long and critical survey to fill out, so I will steep my tea.
First cup of the day.
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