Schmid, M.A. (2012). The Purple Thread. (pp. 16-18)
…The ladybugs each had their own unique patterns and colors that seemed to glow from inside the wood. It was almost like they were alive inside of the wood. They both walked around the other side of the archway but there were no carvings on that side. Nothing at all was on that side. Only flat, plain looking wood that didn’t even have any visible grains running through it. “Koura, this may sound crazy but since I’ve been here nothing seems to out of the ordinary in this place so I’m just going to come right out and ask it. Do you think this is some kind of magical doorway?” Anna felt awkward and embarrassed the second after she asked it but now couldn’t take back her question. “What in the world am I saying, Koura”, Anna said with an I can’t believe I just asked that as her voice got soft and had a crack in her voice from some embarassment. “There is no such thing as Magic.” Said Anna. “Do you really believe there is no such thing as magic, Anna?” Asked Koura. Koura was looking her straight in the eye waiting for her reply. Anna felt Koura’s eyes looking deep into her, like she was reading inside her soul. Anna had always believed in magic. Since she was a little girl, she believed. So, why was it now that those words would even come out of her mouth. “You know Koura, honestly, I’m not even sure why I said that. Well, at least your truth is coming out instead of uncertainty and doubt” Koura said with an I know why you said what you did Motherly kind of tone. “Anna, sometimes life gets so busy, or we think it gets so busy we start walking away from truth and find ourselves in the bubble of an illusion. It seems like our life, we are walking the same steps everyday with a rhythm and routine, but with every step we step further away from what we know our truth to be and if we’re not careful we become a comfortably numb picnic ant.” Anna kind of laughed after she imagined the visual of her being a picnic ant. “Well, you know Koura sometimes I think it would be easier to be that picnic ant. Of course it would Anna. They have their one task that they focus on and that is their purpose for fulfilling their task to the Queen or their community. But even they know they have a purpose and they complete that task being true to what they know. They are following their heart first in order to be the best picnic ant they can be for that Queen and their community. The difference between you and the picnic ant is the obvious one that you are human. Right…and that you have truths in your heart that only you can choose to follow. When you become numb to your truths you end up blindly following the ant in front of you because it’s easier to follow someone else’s truth so you don’t have to make any choices to be responsible for your own heart. You become comfortably numb, which is a choice too.” Anna leaned up against one of the light posts after that last little nugget that Koura dropped as it touched something inside her heart that she couldn’t deny feeling. She folded her arms and looked down at the dark ground and it reminded her of staring into the dark place of numbness that she felt she had been walking through for many years. She just couldn’t put her finger on that feeling with words until Koura just explained it to her with Picnic ants of all things. “You want to know what I think Magic is Anna?” Anna looked up and with reflective and somewhat sad eyes, unfolded her arms and folded her hands together as if she was getting ready to pray to listen to Koura. “Magic is believing in yourself. That’s why you didn’t believe in it anymore and you didn’t even understand why you said you didn’t believe.” Anna just stood there listening, taking in every word Koura was saying while she fidgeted with her fingers folded tightly together. She looked towards the archway, into the blackness surrounding the lighted frame and thought of all the years she had walked a path of darkness, becoming blind to the beauty that had always been in front of her yet she allowed herself to not see it. Anna leaned away from the pole and started moving towards the archway to inspect it again to see what other details she might be able to see. There was a slight breeze that she felt against her cheek as she walked towards the archway and this reminded her that soon they would need to find shelter to rest for the night. Anna knew there wasn’t anything in sight which made her heart beat a little faster. She walked around the other side of the archway again and still nothing. She got brave and slowly inched her hand toward the entrance where the door might be if there was one visible. Maybe if she stuck her hand through the opening it would activate something, somehow. She was really reaching in her bag of ideas from all the Sci-Fi movies she had watched. Her hand was almost to the opening and she quickly pulled it back. “I don’t know Koura. I think we might be sleeping in the dirt under the light of the lamps tonight. Hmmm. Well, that doesn’t sound very comfortable or safe to me Anna.” Anna walked back around to the side with all of the ladybugs and reached her hand up to her neck to hold the necklace the Oak had gifted her. You know, if the Oak thought I was worthy of this gift then I believe I have the strength and courage to figure this out. As quick as that and as simply as saying that out loud, Anna held out her hand, walked close enough to the archway to where she could stick her hand and arm through it and without skipping a beat, she stuck her hand through the archway and pulled it back out. Koura was standing behind her with curiousity and a little bit of caution in her eyes. Anna looked back at Koura when nothing happened. Try it again said Koura. I am going to go around the other side and try it from there. A few quick steps around the archway and Anna looked determined into the empty space between the archway and boldly stuck her hand through. Nothing happened. Koura, we have to be missing something. Help me look over this archway one more time to see if anything else stands out. You start from the bottom right and I’ll start from the bottom left and meet at the top. As they both started the investigation up the archway one last time, they both were slow and methodical in checking every inch, every line of grain, every curve on the ladybugs and every scalloped leaf line through each inch leading up to the top of the frame. As they each would get closer to the top with nothing new to divulge, their hearts beat a little faster from anxiousness about what they would do next. As they rounded the curve almost to the top of the arch where the final meeting point was Anna noticed something out of the corner of her eye at the very top center. She immediately grabbed Koura’s hand in excitement, pointed her finger to the top center of the archway and the only word that came out of her mouth was “Look”! Koura’s jaw dropped and she could not believe her eyes. There it was, plain as day the Wheel of Tarannis inlaid into the archway as if someone had just carved it while they were standing there. It was so obvious, how could they have missed that? Koura that was NOT there before. I know that with all my being it was not there when we looked before. Anna stopped in her tracks, frozen, she looked at Koura with a knowing on her face as if she had just solved world hunger. I had to act, Koura. The strength and courage that the Oak saw in me and gave me was only the reminder that it has been in my heart all along. I get it! She shrieked with a smile. I can say things and know things but I must also act on these things to turn those words into wisdom. When I chose to act with strength and courage I could see the truth that has always been in front of me. Anna didn’t hesitate any longer and reached for the wheel of Tarannis around her neck. She knew exactly what she needed to do and did not hesitate. She drew the cord up and over her head, reached towards the hole in the wood without hesitation, and with a firm push into the matching grooves of the necklace into the wood, the gift from the oak created the connection. Instantly she felt her whole being shift and the inside of her body felt warm and tingly. It felt like rivers of sunshine flowing down through her body and a heaviness that she had felt was being swept downstream where a bigger ocean was welcoming her spirit. She could feel herself become lighter, almost as if she was floating on her back down this river. It was a new, strange, wonderfully weird sensation she thought to herself. She almost didn’t want to open her eyes because she might actually be floating off the ground. “Koura, I’m a little afraid to open my eyes. Are my feet still on the ground?” Koura chuckled. “Yes, honey they are. And I think you are going to like what you see”…
