Despite the falling snow

She tells her love while half asleep,
In the dark hours,
With half words whispered low;
As earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.

(Robert Graves)

Platforms of Persia

We were all sitting in the hotel lobby playing some sort of creepy role-playing game. It was sort of like "Mafia," but it somehow took longer, and I think there were special cards involved… maybe it was "Magic: The Gathering." Who knows; the point is that it was a normal day. There was a large picture window at the back of the room overlooking a thicket behind the hotel. It had a small courtyard-esque clearing in the centre like any decent thicket should have.

My patience was already wearing thin with the tedious game when a woman startled us by entering the room shouting, "Everyone, look outside! There’s a huge creature out there! I think it’s La Chupacabra!" As it turned out, the thing wasn’t the legendary cryptid goat-sucker of Puerto Rico, but instead it was a grizzly-bear sized badger. "Costas! Run and get my camera!" I shouted. He obeyed, at which point, we all can surmise that this was, indeed, a dream.

As I waited for my Costas to return, I started snapping pictures of the action with my camera-phone. There were more animals in the courtyard now, a strange mongoose-type animal, a deer, and I’m pretty sure there was a cow. All gargantuanly proportioned, mind you (in the style of the badger). There were people out there as well—a small group of folks huddled in a circle near the edge of the clearing. Wait, did I recognize one of them? Yes, I’m sure it was Victoria Rice out there with the giant badger and cow. I turned to show my fantastic pictures to everyone, and I realized that despite my best efforts to photograph the tremendous creatures, I had only managed to take several very creepily close-up images of Victoria Rice’s face. Too bad… I guess I will have to go down to the thicket myself.

As I approached the circle, I noticed something in the centre. It looked like a… yes, it was a person. A small boy clad in Persian-style armor. He was lying on the ground… it was all making sense now…! The ancient relay of transport cables, the signs and wonders… he was back from the deep past to help the world through a time of great turmoil. His head was nearly severed, and he was clearly dying… and Victoria knew why.

At this point I apparently assumed control of Victoria’s body. This is one of those things that can really only happen in a dream (obviously)—it was no longer necessary for Philip Rice to take part in the dream to maintain the storyline, and since this was my dream, Victoria and my identities became merged. The newly reincarnated me scooped up the little Persian boy and carried him across the windswept plains to reach the ancient cables. These looked something like telegraph cables or power lines, but when the proper incantation was recited the cables would descend in a geometric formation resembling a platform suitable to stand upon. After a short interval, the platform would ascend back up into the structure of the cables, carrying whoever stood upon it away into (presumably) another dimension. With the help of the young prince (who had regained consciousness by this point) we summoned a platform, and were spirited away down the ancient cables to complete our divine mission for the human race.

Late-Night Ramblings 2010 #1

There is a certain kind of "feeling"—one might call it a desire—that is so potent, so honest, that it becomes part of the definition of oneself... Maybe this is part of what makes us human; I prefer to think that these are little clues as to the nature of God... as beings created in His image, as we learn about ourselves, we learn more about Him: what He thinks, how He feels.

For example, I have a deep desire for peace. Not silly hippie "world-peace" or the quasi-Buddhist "inner-peace," I'm talking about literal peace:

Quiet stillness, time to sit and think for hours, listening to birds, to water, to air, to silence. Time to stare at a blank wall and slowly realize who I love, who my friends are, and who God is. Most importantly, it's time to look at the stars and think about myself versus the universe. Why don't I have more of that in my life? I want more of that.