On Greek mythology and candles

You see a single flame in the dark. 

Reaching out for stability: a wall, a rail to grip

Maybe even a hand

You find nothing.

You are alone and 

your only choice is to follow the light. 

into the depths, into the pits of 

chaos. 

Where are you going? 

Why are you here? 

The candle flickers, more erratically the more you question the world around you. 

What is this place and what lurks in the shadows?

Your heart pounds in your ears. Hold your breath. 

Don’t let the light go out, ’tis but a gift. 

Breathe slowly. 

Trust yourself, trust this journey. 

You can't see where you're going but the earth feels sloped, feels loose under foot. 

You swear it feels as though the earth is trying to swallow you whole. 

Like quicksand, to consume and birth you after months of gestation. 

When the time is right. Let Gaia hold you. 

Your steps feel slower, each one more deliberate than the last. 

Take your time.

An explosion of light comes,

Threatening to knock you off your feet. 

The sudden shift from night to day is jarring and your eyes can’t seem to adjust. 

You cannot open, you see only bright red and white in the spaces behind your eyelids. 

Tears stream down your face. 

What would happen if you opened your eyes? 

You don’t, you simply can’t. 

Are you dreaming?

When the light softens around you, soft, sensual laughter is heard. 

It is safe to open. 

There is a cloudless, vivid blue sky with an orange sun. 

You feel the warmth on your cheeks and for a moment, your uncertainty of where you’ve been all this time disappears. 

Looking down, your feet are firmly planted in loamy soil. 

Pressing on, with the sun as your guiding light, you realize. 

The candle. Where has it gone?

Has it abandoned you? Has it disappeared entirely?

You feel great despair wash over you 

as your saving grace that led you here

is nowhere in sight. 

The laughter comes again, sensuous and intoxicating.

It fills you with a different type of warmth. 

One that tickles and buzzes around inside of you, 

Like a honeybee. 

Go to it. 

Follow the laughter. Find the voice.

Now.

You begin to run but you don’t know why, the space around you beginning to take shape. 

Peaks break the earth

jagged, white tipped mountains that feel eternities away.

Are you adventurous enough to scale to the top? 

Don’t stop.

The ground turns to stone as you reach the edge of a 20-foot drop, staring down a waterfall.

Are you scared to jump?

Do you even know where you are. 

Are you fearless?

When you look up, the sky is beginning to change. 

Stars are beginning to show.

Bright spots of light shine out from the pale blue emptiness, new ones appearing each and everywhere you look. 

You are so busy staring at the stars, connecting constellations, that the sky turns black before you look back around you. 

A small, flickering flame waits just three paces from you, an old friend. 

Go, wander, discover.

The world is bigger than you know and 

I’ll be here waiting, watching. 

Ready to guide when you’re ready.