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- Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!demon!cix.compulink.co.uk!maryb
- Newsgroups: alt.callahans
- From: maryb@cix.compulink.co.uk (Mary Branscombe)
- Subject: No subject
- Reply-To: maryb@cix.compulink.co.uk
- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 11:53:00 +0000
- Message-ID: <memo.758530@cix.compulink.co.uk>
- Sender: usenet@gate.demon.co.uk
- Lines: 71
-
- up and down, round and round
- Mary wanders over to the bar from where she's been sitting quitely
- near CD.
- "Hi Mike. I'd like something special, please. For celebration and
- affirmation and to make a really neat and brightly-coloured
- fireball!"
- She doesn't recognsise the contents of the glass she receives from a
- grinning Mike and looks around the bar. "Mmmmmm, this is great.
- Anyone got any idea what it is?"
- Draining the small glass, she heads over to the chalk line and hefts
- the drink.
- "CD, I really feel for you. Stuff in my life lately has been reaching
- a point where I thought it was awful. Subconscioulsy, I've been
- waiting for another crisis. Things in my life have ended and changed
- that I thought were like a polestar, bright and fixed and central.
- Your navigation goes a bit iffy when those things change. You may
- think the world is falling apart, or it's you that's falling apart -
- is it all my fault because of something? Am I hurting, are they
- hurting - because of me?
- But as someone else here said recently - what goes around comes
- around. It's bad sometimes (it's almost unbearable sometimes) - but,
- oh, it does get better. You never get any certainties - *life*
- *isn't* certain. But it can - and will - be wonderful again.
- If it hurts when something breaks, then it was acting as shell to
- protect you from the world and no shell is going to last forever -
- and as long as it lasts, if it doesn't grow with you, it's going to
- limit you and cut into you and *harm* you. Breaking hurts, but it
- seems to be part of growing. Your love for yourself and the world is
- the best shell because it keeps you and others warm. It may be awful
- for ages, or just for a while, but even if you get so down that
- you're just looking for it to go on being awful - it will suddenly
- become wonderful. Job, friends, family, lovers - yes, Mr Micawber,
- something will turn up. That's what we celebrate at the turning of
- years and seasons, solstice and halloween and new year to christmas
- and birthdays. Hope and the human spirit, turning and renewal.
- You may be alone, and feel alone, and then you'll meet a friend. Or
- meet part of yourself. See the flowers bloom. Smell the wind and the
- rain and feel the dance of the stars. It may be something new and
- special, it may have been there all along and you just need to wake
- up and see it. Life isn't all entropy! As I have found, there's an
- opposite force (Ignatz tells me about "extropy" which works the other
- way - you may find your own name for it).
- Even when you're expecting it to stay bad and get worse, it gets
- better, sometimes in spite of you, sometimes as you watch, surprised
- and delighted with open mouth."
- Mary smiles broadly, with her whole face
- "And it's wonderful. It's life. And it's probably time for me to
- close my mouth for now! I'm happy and I didn't expect that at all
- just now. I didn't expect any of it! Yes, I *am* surprised - and
- delighted. Mmmmmm. Mmmmmmmm! So"
- she steps up to the line and raises the small, heavy glass.
-
- "To people, people. To life and growth and pain and endings and
- beginnings and realising and remembering it's a journey - we don't
- stay static - and to reaching the next wonderful place on the road,
- just when you thought you were stuck in roadworks for the foreseeable
- future! To the pasts and the places and the people and the
- happenstances that make futures for us. To us and the Place.
- Allez-oooop!"
- She hurls the glass into the fireplace and the crash-tinkly is
- followed by a gentle 'whoosh' and a very pretty coloured ball of
- flame.
- "Aaah. Nice. Mike, a mango tea to relax with please."
- and Mary heads off around the place, a smile of real happiness on her
- face, looking for some friends to hug and maybe a cat to stroke.
-
- +-------------------------------------------+--------------------------+
- | Ommmmmm, said the lift |maryb@cix.compulink.co.uk |
- | Organisation: Me? You're joking, right? |maryb@cix.compulink.uucp |
- +-------------------------------------------+--------------------------+
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