BANANA PATCH FANTASY PRODUCTIONS
Facing Sunrize
Chapter 4, p3
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She looks around her. The owls are still hooting continuously enraptured by their own visions on the rock wall before them. Then all of a sudden, they all stop and begin moving toward the Glorious Light at the end of the maze of tunnels. Lali felt it too, but didn't know why. Yet she moved along with the same purpose as the others, trying not to let her feathers drag along the rough floor of the tunnel, which was strewn with many unrecognizable items. As she hobbled along swiftly, something caught her eyes on the floor ahead of her. She slowed down as she approached the item, for it seemed familiar to her. She stopped and looked carefully at it. It was a dolly made of corn husks. It was the very dolly her grandmother Sittingjing-gongala had made for her the summer before. She had torn the arm off of it, and then destroyed it. Now Grandma had made a new one for her. Which dolly was this one? She felt a bit scaird to see it. Shocked really. But Lali wanted to take the dolly along with her for safe keeping. When she looked closely at the doll, she could plainly see that the arm had been reattached. "Oh this is so strange!" she remarked. "How can all this be happening?"
Lali tried to carry the dolly so she could continue down the tunnel toward the Glorious Light, but became very frustrated when she couldn't secure it with her wing, and had to clutch it with one claw and hop on the other. Unable to do that well, she held it next in her beak, and so was able to scurry along and catch up with the rest of the owls who were gathering outside the tunnel already. Her clawed foot hit a stone, and she fell right on her beak, so she decided it would be better to leave the dolly there, and pick it up on the way back.
She could hear the delightful sound of water trickling somewhere, and when she got to the end of the tunnel, she saw the stream. It was flowing briskly and there was a great old Cottonwood tree with it's branches dancing in the gentle breeze.
The air was fresh again and Lali rushed outside to join the others who were forming a circle beneath the tree. The circle was being led by a beautiful shining lady. It was not the insect Queen, because this person had a comforting presence. She smiled at Lali and invited her to join the circle, which Lali did enthusiastically.
Lali was the last owl to join the circle, and when she did, they all stretched out their wings so they were touching. Then the Shining Lady went and sat on a small throne, carved from the living tree. When she was seated, her tender voice made the buds of all the flowers blossom, and the air was filled with the thick aromas of their intoxicating essences. As the Empress sang, the owls began spinning round the tree, slowly at first, and then, time stood still, while they twirled into a blur. The warm light that flowed from the Empress' body, saturated the darkness, and illuminated the night. Even the stars in the sky joined circles in their constellations and twirled in harmonic arcs to the compelling rhythm of the Empress' chanting which resounded to Infinity.
Moving together in unison, the hooting owls twirling becomes a high pitched ringing, like a bell, vibrating within everything. Then a breeze ruffled their feathers, and synchronously, they gently slowed down, and stopped twirling. Dazed, they cover their faces with their wings, and try to maintain their equilibrium. The Shining Lady rose up and approached the first owl. Lovingly, she administered a benediction to each owl as she moved along in the circle.
When she would get to an owl, it would look up at her. Humming, she'd break off a piece of the sweet cake she manifested, and place it on the tongue of each owl. After receiving the sweet cake, the owl would fall on it's beak in a trance that could last for a few moments. The Empress would then move down the line to the next owl performing the same ritual.
When the Empress arrived at Lali's spot, she broke off a piece of the sweet bread chanting in her hooting manner. Lali felt an immense Loving presence pouring in torrents, invisible torrents, into her body from the Empress. She stared incredulously into the Empress' eyes and opened her beak, She stuck her tongue out while the beautiful Lady placed the aromatic nourishing bread on it. Then the Empress continued on. Lali accepted the bread without realizing it. Once ingested, it made her sick to her stomach. Lali fell forward onto her beak, like the others. Her head was spinning and she fell helpless and barely conscious as she held herself up by bracing her wings on the ground.
As she fell, tumbling thru the ether within herself, many characters began to emerge from her consciousness. She remembers being Lali, but now sees herself many years ahead, as a grown woman. She's walking in a barren wilderness. The wind blows furiously around her where great devastation has taken place. There are mirrors everywhere, like mirages they form before her, and in them, she sees the many characters she has been and will be. Even though she can't stop the changes, she's not afraid, only intrigued, as she is witness to the very basis and function of the Soul, on it's journey thru Time and Space. She knows what's in all hearts...
In her heart too she sees the trickery and willfulness hiding deep within her, exposed and defined at last. So wily and elusive this die hard ego tripper. So hard to recognize, even when we see it happening...see ourselves doing it...again! She sees though, and understands how weak she's been, and gets her bearings on a tack toward a future that will honor her ancestors. She tumbles through lives and times she's unfamiliar with. Incredible times...in the future. Lives yet to be lived!

Lali Finds Her Dolly