Cary left the cabin in search of a space where she could let her skin feel breaths of the sea; she found sounds unproducedβchirps of birds, splash-plops of waves, guttural gustsβbalanced her mind before it went into performance mode, where the most βnaturalβ element she would hold close would be the colophony in her case. Playing was her passion; it was not in any way otherwise. She felt powerful and she felt pride as notes so precisely plucked as planned. The violin was her exhaleβthe veranda, her inhale. Between the two is where balance found her. ; )
Simon finally let me take out the boat as the sole skipper. I had been training with him for a year plus months and my skillset had earned a status sufficient enough to take the wheel. About what I was still uncertain, though, was why he insisted we depart after the set of sunβthe view most worthy of a horizon heading. I had seen the glow times before and I was hoping to renew the experience as the captain rather than the kid. But, Simon was insistent, so we left the harbour as the others were returning. With a heart as flat as the waves we cut, we sailed into the darkβwhere water ever so slowly began to turn lambent under the arriving moonlight. *SPLOSH*β¦*SPLOSH-SPLOSH-SPLOSH* Whatever was that??? The water had been still. I looked toward the sound and, as my chest resuscitated, tears began fallingβthose of joyous, humbled amazement. Dolphins. Dancing. Everywhere. Simon gently nudged me to the side and took the helm; he knew. What I had not known was that Simon had sailingβs technacy down to a capital Tβand I had a long, long way to go. There was more to it than knots and tides and wind directions and sheets and jibs. There was more to it than even the eldest, most expert sailor would know. No manual or course could ever teach what I had learned that day. I knew how to sail and I even knew what to do in cases of chaos. What Simon had taught me that dusky eveβthe lesson I still neededβwas that it was never about what I knew or what I could doβ¦it was about being both open and okayβand, to be hoped, even excitedβabout the idea of discovery beyond capable currents. ; )
Alice, understandably so, felt quite uneasy about retrieving advice from a Bad Matter via axinomancy at the lea, so she ranβzig-zagging a rather clear interpretation for geomancyβuntil fate of fastest feet had her distanced wonderfully. ; )