SHE DID IT
When she awakened from her sleep, she realized that it all was to start with an egg. She had been incubated in it for who-knows-how long, and now she felt that the shell was pressing upon her. She couldn't breathe fully, but the shell was closing in upon her, crushing her. (She was growing, but was unaware.) She could no longer move; a tiny voice within her kept repeating. “This is Your moment; STRETCH your legs, STRETCH your wings! The Power is now; it is YOURS! It is IN You! You Can DO This!!”
Wait– Wings? Legs?? Tail-feathers? Do I have these??
She gathered what seemed to be her last ounce of energy and gave a mighty heave. And – the shell cracked. Only slightly, but it gave way. Again, she summoned all her strength and pushed again, against the wall of the shell. The crack grew longer – wider – and pieces now raining out of that confining womb that had imprisoned her.
She strained against the now-cracking, now-disintegrating wall of that prison, and – it GAVE WAY! She stretched her legs, to their fullest; fluffed her long, diaphanous tail feathers; unfurled her newly-discovered wings to the blackness. She could BREATHE! No stopping, no restricting, just pure freedom. Just the freedom to be –what?
The voice came, from the deep within her mind. “You are Free; you did what you have never done. So, spread your wings, for you are strong; you are beautiful and you are ALIVE. You are awake, as no other being has yet been. Watch, exult, as your wings and your spirit lift you. Be aware, for the cosmos is yours!”
And she flapped; she lifted herself into a stygian, smothering blackness that was a universe yet to be born. She flew, not knowing where; and a point of light appeared. Another wing-stroke; more tiny lights. A sudden rush of a comet that almost grazed that lovely sinuous beak of gold. And a universe was awakening – slowly, but inexorably. Wherever she flew, new lights appeared. Strong, new lights, gathering into pinwheels, into the miracles of birthing stars and planets, and images and dreams and beauty, and – wonder.
Yet our glorious hero had a questioning feeling – “Why am I here? What do I do? What is my destiny?” The tiny voice replied yet again, “All things will come to pass. You are creating a universe.Think not of your Destiny, for all is accomplished as is its own true nature. You will know when the moment arrives.” ...and it faded again.
She realized that her wings were growing; stronger, more vibrant, more colorful, with thousands of colors, hues, shades and with each new feather, a new color appeared, all light coming from her newly-created stars. Thousands of shades of reds, vibrant purples, golds, brilliant whites; greens, neon yellows, iridescent blues; she was dazzling. And new stars appeared, dancing, and pulsing, shimmering, and blasting their brilliance thoughout the new heavens....
The tail-feathers, the crest on her head, they grew long; diaphanous, sinuous, luxurious. Following her body's every move as if to say “yes, you are awake,-- and you are Adored!”
She gamboled; she frolicked, she soared; she played with the shooting stars, caressed the miriad suns' reflections on planets, moons, and rings of planets. Hundreds, no, MILLIONS of worlds, coming into their own; many breathing a strange concept into the cosmos – life!
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Now, an eerie feeling swept over our hero. There was a longing, a yearning, a compulsion to return to whence she awakened from that shell, now forever gone. The nest? There it was! She alighted into a warm, uterine feeling, but something felt different. Something strange, She felt a heat, a growing heat around her body, then her legs, and finally her wings, enveloping her relentlessly. The nest burst into flames, taking her feathers, her wings, those strong, supple legs, and everything that she was – consuming them, razing them, leaving only the ashes of its destruction in the charred remains of the nest. The Pain was excruciating – at first. It mellowed into the delicious, exquisite, almost erotic feeling of transformation, of transmutation, of transfiguration. She felt exhausted, and fell, beak-first, into the growing mound of glowing,white-hot ashes. She surrendered to the inevitable, but – it never came. She had lived; and she now realized her Destiny; to be born again. To create, to assist, to invite, to explore and to renew, forever and ever, until – ?
She had awakened to a Joy, a new life, creating a new cosmos, and new beginnings in the evolving fabric of infinity. Every star, every planet, every life-form, now had been imbued with her power. To be all that they could be, and to work within their own nature, to live, to love, and to be appreciated in their respective worlds. Plants grew tall, feeding other life-forms. Waters became strong, yet yielding, re-shaping and nourishing their worlds' inhabitants. Animate life-forms, learning to work to expand their capacities. To be alive and to be cherished. And to love and appreciate. They had all awakened to their own purpose; they chose to make all things harmonious.
And all because of one tiny egg, adrift in the stygian nothingness of infinity, of consciousness – in a now-burgeoning, ever growing cosmos.
And all triggered by an innocent, naive, egg-born being. A spirit.
The Phoenix
(author)
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