We are all pilgrims each with our own journey
And so they set off to find the edge of the earth. Travelling
only with faith and hope that their travels would bring them
full circle and deliver them to the beginning in time for a new
start.
They waved good-bye and with each sweep of their hands the
people on the shore grew smaller and smaller until they had
become one with the horizon. Waves lapped at the sides of their
small ship ticking like a clock timing their travel.
They remembered how people had laughed as they built their boat
and prepared to find the edge of the earth. How as they left
they heard a chorus of non-believers chanting, "idiots, look, a
ship of fools".
Time passed, as it always does, but in this sea, supporting a
ship of fools, time started to bend and vibrate and wonders
began to appear. We called them wonders because we wondered what
they were. Strange shapes played before us like wisps of smoke
taking form and then drifting into nothingness. Creatures
playing to the left and right, but as you turned they were gone
and you wondered if they had ever been there at all.
We journeyed on through the rolling sea; flying fish barrelled
out of the mists, changing shape, leering at us with peeled back
lips and gnashing teeth and plopped back into the water laughing
at our startled faces.
Above us we felt a rushing, a pulsing of air, pushing us on,
urging our journey, encouraging our foray to the edge of the
earth. We thought back to the start of our journey, back to our
loved ones, warm in front of their fires and we imagined
ourselves standing behind them and in that instant we were, but
in a changed state, and our presence in the room made them
uncomfortable and they got up and checked windows and doors for
the draft we were causing. We were bending time and the wind the
waves were being stirred by was seeping back into our loved ones
living rooms, with the curve in time we were causing, cracks
were appearing in and around what we believed and it was
becoming hard to understand why we had been frightened of the
past and the start of our journey.
We saw ourselves balanced on an enormous disc, our little ship
the bravest warrior the world had ever seen and us with our maps
and telescopes a series of eyes documenting, remembering,
imagining wanting to bring it all back to explain.
It was then we saw a small ship on the horizon coming toward us
and we realised it was us coming back from where we had been and
meeting ourselves, but we were younger and smaller and we saw
the fear in our faces and felt the panic in our hearts and
realised this was not a normal journey, and to journey to the
edge of the earth was an undertaking that all must do, and the
fear of the fall as you find the edge, is the fear we all fear
most, and the fear that stops the journey, and as we came closer
to the edge, to the abyss, our hearts and souls began to rejoice
at the prospect of the fall, but our minds began to race, and
worry, and cry, and claw at the ships oars, and try to paddle
away from the edge. But as we fell, our hearts began to sing
like the purest of angels and the sound melted the fear in our
minds, until it became an intensity of colour cushioning our
fall. And all at once we were the ship, the angels, the colour,
the people at home, the sea, the world, the wind, and more than
we can comprehend or explain. We were a light brighter than the
brightest thing you have ever experienced and then even brighter.
To tell you this now brings tears to my eyes and in our little
ship we clung together and had no words for what we had seen,
just the knowledge that we had been to the edge of the world and
returned. And as we approached the shore and were embraced by
the warmth of home, we knew nothing would ever be the same
again. The bend in time our journey had caused, had shaped the
earth in our minds into a perfect sphere and now we could see
planets, moons and stars swirling around us. The sun left and
rose again, the moon carrying earths shadow buried itself in the
sea only to be born again and we, we stood together staring into
the vast changing blackness, and just for an instant, we weren't
frightened anymore. We knew where we fitted; we knew our name,
and the name of who had made us. We didn't need to speak or fill
the space time had left. There was no time and space was a
chattering, humming, living thing; we were one person an I, a
you, a me, and an us.