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Fiction
Healing Stories: Five Magic Seeds
This morning when I woke I knew without question it is right and good to seek the help of our village healer. At last! I walked the long, winding road to her cottage out in the country. As I passed through the gateway in the huge old hedge that separated her land from the road I smelled a livening, potent scent of countless herbs and flowers. I slowly strode across the long, long garden to her porch, stepped up and knocked on the door.
She came out and we sat in the cool, airy shade of an arbor, chatting comfortably about the beauty of the summer soon to come. I sensed her scanning me, body, mind and soul and opened myself to her examination. After a time, she stood and walked back into the house, returning a few minutes later with a glass of cool scented herbal tea in one hand and two little cloth packets tied with purple ribbons in the other.
She handed me the glass and one tiny bundle. I opened it and saw five seeds of varying size and shape, each different than the other. “Swallow them down, one at a time, each with a separate sip of tea,” she said. “Taste them. Sense them. Let them become a part of your being.” And so I did, taking the first onto my tongue. I let it sit there, savoring the taste, scent and weight of it. I became aware of its life force moving into my own, propping up, strengthening, healing. And so with each in turn until I had swallowed all five.
“The first is for wisdom and clarity,” she said, “the second for courage. One is for deep, true and growing connection to Life Force, that which brings all actions and beings and things together as one. One is for peace of mind. And the last imbues hope for the future, a key to every healing.” She closed her eyes, smiled and gently held the other bundle in both her hands, as though hugging a dear friend and saying, “Farewell.”
“These are exactly the same as the others. Take them and plant them around your home, that you may not only feel their power within but moment by moment see and smell, touch and taste their beauty, their power and their presence in your life and in your mending.” She smiled at me much as she had at the seeds, touched my hand and walked me out through the garden to the hedge. I returned home and created my garden of healing within and without. It will take me into the future.
May you, too find your own healing story this very day.
©2008 Stephen Neal Szpatura
Mountain Lake Moonrise picture courtesy of Free Nature Pictures. |
