The Love that Created the Universe

“Sue, do you remember the story about how the world came into being?” she said. The weight of the words traveled damply in the nearly black room.

“Of course,” she said harshly, “but why the hell would that matter now. How is the explosion of everything into being at once going help us.”

“Trust me when I say it’s not going to get us out of here but it will help. And if nothing else, it will occupy us for the last few minutes of our time together.

“In the beginning there was nothing. No wolves, no stars, no spears, no words or patterns or water or anything. Especially no mud padded huts with sweet smelling smoke quaffing into the night sky. Because all of these things need love to be put together and in the beginning was only Love and it circled and spiraled around itself in the nothingness of the universe. And Love saw the nothingness and loved it, cause that’s all that love knows how to do, to love is its only choice. And Love reached out into the nothingness, which is so unlike itself it had to fill up all that empty space. So love spun of out of itself and out of space and out of time, the stars and the sun and night and day everything that ever existed and everything was held together with love. And that’s why magic works. When we chose love the earth and the seeds, they in turn love the earth and sun and grow and give back to us. And when we chose love the lamb and it feels that love it gets better. But we even have to choose love death, for some times people are not meant to get over an illness and they are meant to follow that current of love into something new and just as lovely.”

And Susan feels that weight on her heart again. She could see tears beginning to form in the corner of her sister’s eyes and her trembling words.

“We can’t be afraid to let all that love come in and we can’t horde it with jealousy or greed. We have to chose to be a channel for love and give it form but not be attached to that form. It is the biggest and hardest thing we have to do. ”

And then Susan collapsed into her sisters outspread arms. She knew then the truth of it all. The power of love and the choice to let it all come in and extend back out. A weight around her heart which she thought was always there fell away like so many tapestries and drapes. She opened up to the power of love, which is the whole of universe, which is in every cell no matter how small or how dark. She chose to let go the weight that kept the magic, the love, at bay; at a constant speed. She let it come in and out, without fear of it filling her up and losing the parts of her which she knew were essential and without resentment for it leaving to whom and what ever it may go. Her sisters ever extended arms and open hands. It was the same as the wheat seeds pushing their way through the dark and into the sunlight. And was exactly the same as the elder women sending the sun below the horizon and with the same grace, going gently into that long black night. And it was exactly the same as her heart valves opening, her mouth opening, her legs opening. It was all opening and receiving and giving.

They were both now crying deeply into each others ruined shoulders. The burses, all purple and brown and blue, pressed against each other with a deep aching numbness. It was in that moment, in the pressing together of their bodies that she gave up all the expectations, all the jealousy and all the anger that caused her so much grief. She never felt as free, as light, as she did then in that cold dark cell. Their weeping reverberated off the stone walls and rattled the wrot iron bars.

Susan felt her sister’s fingers shift along her back, spreading, elongating and becoming cooler. They grew and flattened until the draped across the entirety of her and trialed to the floor. They were softer and stronger. In fact, the whole of her body shifted this way. Her neck starched out from her shoulders and became thinner. Her body became fuller and covered in a downy white feather coat. She could feel something hard and warm, like a stones in a hot spring, press against her neck. It was pleasant against the scared flesh, where not too long a go a rope burned its way through several layers of skin leaving a ring of tissues like a bunch of fabric scrunched around her neck.

Susan withdrew from her sister’s embrace to find a great sawn before her. Its wings outstretched and encircled her. Her head resting upon her shoulders.