Know This

Know this.

If you have been sent there, there is room enough.  If there isn't, room will be made.

Doubt is the harbinger of disbelief and the defeater of faith.

When you walk, walk in all confidence. Know that where ever your foot lands, that place belongs to you, regardless of the current occupants.

Know this.

Follow Your Path

The purpose of this post is two-fold.  I want to talk about something I'm experiencing and I want to give a little peek at what I'm working on these days.
 

I don't know if this is a case of life imitating art or the other way around.  All I know is right now my life is mirroring a situation I've written about in my book.  I believe everyone in life has a purpose, or path, as it were. Once you find that path, it is your ultimate purpose to stay on that path.  For some the path burns so brightly that they have no trouble finding it and following it.  For others (like me) it can be shrouded; a step by step discovery of yourself and your potential.  I can honestly say that right now, today, I know my path and it's burning brightly.  Anything standing in my way will be eliminated, up to and including people who can't or won't believe in my purpose along with me.  I have enough fears and doubts of my own to waste my time battling yours!

Below is an unedited excerpt from my book.  It's pretty straight forward. Read away and please comment!  I thrive on feedback!

Old Mamma and the Path

            “Come closer child.  Eyes not what they were.”  She held out her hands and Casha came forward to take them.  They were warm and strong, her grip firm as she pulled Casha down to sit in front of her.  Her eyes were a clouded blue and set in a wizened face.  Her gray locks piled high atop her head were so long that they trailed down her back and pooled on the floor around her.

            Casha sat quietly through the physical perusal.  Old Mamma’s hands touched hers, feeling the palms, squeezing her fingers, patting her arms, testing the muscle.

            “You have some skill with a blade?” 

            “Yes Ma’am.”  She had the same melodic accent as Marcus, she noticed.  Something about her reminded Casha of Delphine, she missed her terribly.  Old Mamma’s touch lingered for a moment on Casha’s wrist, resting lightly on the hidden mark.  Then she was beckoning Casha to lean forward.  Mamma hummed low in her throat, her hands smooth and gentle as they traced her brow, touched her hair, her cheeks, the contours of her nose and mouth and finally came to rest over her eyes, then she sat back.

            “Good strong arms.  A fine warrior, but such a heavy heart for one so young,” she clucked her tongue.  “What troubles you child?”  It was a simple question, but there were so many possible answers Casha didn’t know where to begin.  She wasn’t sure she wanted to reveal everything to a complete stranger.

            “Your secret too heavy to bear alone.  Share it out and lighten you load.”  Casha gasped and clutched her wrist.  The old woman smiled.

            “Mamma not all blind you know,” she tapped her brow.  “Ori show things the eye can’t see.  But I thinking you know this already.”  Casha’s mind was whirling.  Could she do it too?

            “You can see it?”

            “I can feel it.  It’s a dangerous thing.  How you come by it?”  As Casha recounted her adventure at the equinox fair she felt the familiar pang in her heart when she thought of Aizzaku and the parents she had never known.  Mamma listened, humming the same low melodic tune.  From the folds of her robe she pulled a square framed mirror, she handed it to Casha.

            “Look you, and tell me what you see,” her voice was filled with gentle warmth; it seemed to still the air around them.  Casha did as she was told.

            “It’s just my reflection.”

            “Closer child.  Look deeper.”  Casha’s breathing slowed as she pulled the mirror closer to her face.  She gazed into her own golden eyes and somehow saw beyond them.  Past her reflected face a larger hidden scene appeared. 

            “I see a wood,” she whispered, squinting to make it out.  “There’s a road cutting through it.”

            “This is your way.  You must follow it.”  Mamma’s voice was far away and above her.  The road now stretched beneath her feet, winding far into the thick of the trees.  Casha looked around at the forest, bewildered.  Twilight was dimming the sky and a thick mist rolled in and hovered over everything but the space beneath her feet.

            “Keep to the path,” Mamma’s voice was faint now.

            “But I can barely see it.”

            “Just walk child.”  The voice faded to a whisper.  Casha took a tentative step.  The mist parted before her and the pathway pulsed with a soft light.  Her apprehension subsided as the way became clear.  With each step she took she shed her uncertainty.

            The path soon began to climb steadily upwards.  She could feel it in her legs, her breathing became more labored.  It may have been hours or just minutes, there was no way to mark the passing of time.  Casha didn’t know how long she had traveled before she reached the plateau.  The plain stretched out before her into the distance, shrouded in the thick swirling mist.  Shapes seemed to rise and fall beneath it, indistinct masses never quite surfacing from beneath the veil.    The mist at her feet churned as a dark shape rose before her, solidifying into a black cloaked figure blocking the path.

            “Let me pass.”

            “This road is closed,” said a strangely familiar feminine voice.  Behind it the path glowed softly beneath the mist and stretched to the horizon.  Casha moved to step around her, eager to finish her journey.  A pale hand grabbed her and forced her back.

            “Did you not hear me?”  Casha ignored her and rushed forward.  The cloaked girl pushed with such force that Casha lost her balance and fell.

            “You must find another way.”  Casha took in the vast expanse of space around them, nothing but mist and sky with only the illuminated path to break the monotony.

            “There is no other way.”

            “You are mistaken,” came the voice from the hood.  As she said it the mist rolled away, revealing a ground littered with paths and roadways all crossing and intersecting each other, stretching into the darkness, yet hers was the only one possessed of the Light.

            “Choose another way.”  It would be easier to go around her, Casha thought, just take another route and pick up the path beyond her, but the idea of it filled her with unease.  Mamma had sent her here somehow, instructed her to keep to the path, and she intended to, wanted to follow her instruction, if only for the fact that she was tired of being lost.

            “This is my path,” she said as she stood.  “I will keep to it.”

            “So be it.”  The girl drew a long blade from her cloak; Casha’s heart sank.  She was unarmed.  The girl came at her with force and relentless speed, keeping Casha dancing and dodging.  The length of steel between them made it impossible for her to get close enough to strike.  She was being pushed back, closer to the edge of the path.  Casha dove under a high blow, rolling to reach the center of the path.  The girl was on her before she could get to her feet.  From her advantaged position she could take Casha down with one well placed blow.  I need a blade NOW!

            Casha saw the blow coming.  She knew there was nothing she could do.  Instinct brought her arm up in useless defense and she braced herself for the pain.  What she felt was the body jarring clash of steel meeting steel.  The sound of it rang out across the landscape and rattled inside her head.  In her once empty hand she held a sword.  It was simply made but to Casha it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

            She took only seconds to overcome her shock.  Months of Warrick’s hard training and muscle memory took over the fight for her.  Casha regained her ground with ease; the blade was perfectly weighted and balanced to become an extension of her arm.  Casha took advantage of an opening and struck the figure down.  When the blade made contact the figure dissipated into vapor, but where the one was cut down two others rose up in its place.  Each fighter she defeated yielded more and more opponents.  They pressed in around her, overwhelming her with sheer numbers until she was pushed off the path.

            Her feet sank deep in thick mud, throwing off her balance and nullifying her attacks.  It closed around her ankles and held her fast.  Each step had to be wrenched from the squelching mess.  Worse yet, she could no longer see the Light of her path; she was outnumbered and fighting blind with no idea which way to go to get back to the path.  She needed help.

            Strong hands pulled her from behind and dragged her backwards out of the midst of the shadow fighters.  She was placed back on her path which was still illuminated softly, but now it was intersected with another path, brightly lit and occupied by her rescuer.  From behind Casha could see the shadows falling quickly before the newcomer’s weapon, a staff ablaze with white fire, and they were not replicating.  Casha made a move to aid in the fight.

            “Keep to the Path,” Old Mamma yelled over her shoulder.  The woman before her could not be the same one she met just moments ago.  She moved with the speed and grace of a youth she did not possess. 

“GO!”  Mamma fought back the shades, her staff a vicious blur of light.  Casha ran along the path, it was brighter now that Old Mamma’s light gave it strength.