The Night of Shama

She walked out the back door into the moonlit yard, rapidly zipping up her jacket as the night breeze kissed her face. She ran through the garden and behind the age old tree, stirring the fallen leaves into flight. She glanced sideways to catch a second or two of their wooshing dance, but remembered the purpose of her running. Finally, when she reached the fence before the forest, she heard his voice.

"I'm here," he said firmly.

She turned toward the soothing sound of him and opened her mouth to answer... or was it to ask? She wasn't sure. A million thoughts rushed to her head, a million questions, but not a single spoken word emerged.

With much patience, he spoke again and said, "You've been waiting all this time to see me."

She looked up with tears in her eyes and humbly nodded. Her heart beamed with a warmth she had not felt before, and she just stood there, soaking it in.

"You mustn't worry," he said. "That's just how it is. You need not suffer for what rises and falls, because you already know that isn't permanent. You need not give too much importance to those and that which come and go. Everything has its time and its place. Your efforts have brought you here. It has not been easy, and it will only get tougher, but you know where the focus should be."

Slowly her spine straightened up and her face rose from her chest. At this point, the tears that filled her cheeks and chin slowed down their streaming. She smiled and understood she had to live her own life. Too much time had been spent with priorities bent.

With a calm mind and silent questions answered, she turned away and walked back home, ready to fulfill what she had moved there to do. It was a courage requiring task, a queen challenge amongst challenges, a life seldom understood, but it was the road she chose to travel... and wouldn't trade it for the world.