Towards morning I fell asleep, and when I woke a cloudless day lay
clear and fresh upon the world, the meadows shone with dew, cobwebs
shimmered past my open window, and a keen breeze from the heights
stung my nostrils with the scent from miles of forest. A sparkling
vitality poured almost visibly with the air and sunshine into my
human blood. I bathed and dressed. Frost had laid silvery fingers
upon the valley during the night, and the shadows beneath the woods
still shone in white irregular patches of a pristine loveliness. The
feeling that Nature brimmed over was even stronger than before, and
I went downstairs half conscious that the “corner” we prepared would
show itself somehow fuller, _different_. The little arena waiting for
it--that arena occupied by our human selves--would proclaim the risen
tide. I almost expected to find Julius and his wife expressing in
their physical persons the advent of this power, their very bodies,
gestures, voices increased and grown upon a larger scale. And when I
met them at the breakfast table, two normal, ordinary persons, merely
full of the exhilarating autumn morning, I knew a moment of surprise
that at the same time included relief, though possibly, too, a touch of
disappointment. They were both so simple and so natural.
It brought me up short, as though before a promised hope not justified,
a balked anticipation. But the next moment my mistake was clear. The
sense of something dwindled gave place to its very opposite--a fuller
realisation. The three of us were so intimate--I might say so divinely
intimate--that my failure to see them “grander” arose from my attempt
to see them “separate”--from myself. For actually we floated, all
three, upon the risen tide together. It was the “mind” in me that
sounded the old false note. Having increased like themselves, I was of
equal stature with them; to see them “different” was impossible.
And this amazing quality was characteristic of all that followed.
Ever since my arrival I had been slowly rising with the tide that
brimmed the valley now to the very lips of the surrounding mountains.
It brimmed our hearts as well. My companions were quiet because they,
like myself, were part of it. There was no sense of disproportion or
exaggeration, much less of dislocation; we shared Nature’s powers
without effort, without struggle, as naturally as sunshine, wind or
rain. We stood within; the day contained all three. The Ceremony,
which was living-with Nature, tuned to the universal life, had been
in progress from the instant Julius had welcomed me a week ago. Our
attitude and the earth’s were one. The Equinox was in us too.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account