The path to epiphany began at a time unexpected.
A joke about a map.
A long-forgotten Rush album from 1987.
An unlikely vacation to Arizona.
And travels to a far reaching place I’ve never known.
Her voice guided me with authority, an unknown passenger.
“Let go of what you cannot control. Just be. Don't miss out on the moment you're in. Appreciate where you are… who you’re with… Laugh more.”
She took me to the darkest of places showing me the negativity in my life— my faulty thinking, the sick cancer it was. Familiar faces caught in the same patterns over and over, a toxic energy lingering, overpowering all that allowed it.
They gossiped of me. Of my darkest inner struggles. My worries. My fears. That’s when her voice intervened again, a divine authority.
“Don’t get stuck on this stuff anymore. Life’s not supposed to be like this. You should all love each other and have a purpose to serve more…”
I took her hand, and we left the darkness in peace, my heart reassured there was purpose. As my vice is "sloth,” I was challenged to take action, doing so in a way compatible with my lifestyle and belief systems— her fresh perspective, the ultimate healing.
Mentally. Spiritually. Emotionally. I was recharging.
She showed me an alternate reality beneath the surface. I separated this from the rest— my own personalized and unforgettably special journey.
“The substance of this moment carries with it… more gravity. True substance,” she said.
This was never audible, only telepathic, offering me perfect peace. Awakening in a micro dimension of existence, parallel to my own, my spiritual and psychological switches flipped in synchronicity as an unknown partner journeyed alongside me, faceless and androgynous.
As we traveled, I struggled to blend in with the others because of my underlying need to verbally communicate rather than the telepathic norm of the rest within the dimension. Working to assimilate to the culture surrounding, she steered me playfully, excusing the human tendency to communicate audibly.
“In a world full of dissonance,” she said, “we must find harmony in our aspirations for resonance.”
I continued to move, the beings in my vicinity transcending the physical and the spiritual in a harmonious unity as we each intersected. Transporting rapidly on an unfamiliar object, we arrived to our destination. It was at this point I understood more. There were four layers in this newfound hierarchy. I started at the bottom, ranking a mere cadet. My spirit lifted in excitement as I studied the vast space and its many complexities, millions of moving parts in a long-established and well-oiled machine. Within the first layer of the hierarchy, we simply prepared food with many others and were instructed to do so discretely so as not to bring attention to ourselves as we delivered meals and served others higher in the order. She reassured me I would advance rapidly in the hierarchy as I adjusted to my new existence by exhibiting true humility and curiosity.
“You must find your simpaticos, dear child,” she instructed. “They’re waiting for you to come back. You make things far too complex when they are designed to be simple. Your nature leads you to chase complexity, but in simplifying and stripping these things from your life, you’ll find real freedom.”
She took me by the hand, and it was in that moment I realized my partner was the voice guiding me, leading me all along, walking in stride with me to help me find a rhythm every step of the way.
“You have to find your place of joy,” she said. “Find your inspiration. We fill life with so many other distractions, but they’re all so trivial in the grand scheme of things.”
This inexplicable renewal transformed me, a dawn to my new beginning. My mental faculties rebooted, my internal systems smoother and faster than ever before, offering the ultimate perspective shift, furthermore making everything that ever wore on me seem so miniscule in the big picture.
As I woke, I was filled with such an utter joy, I could not contain it, though the wee hours of the night forced me to. Somehow, she left me reassured that the best way to spread that joy was to embrace the simple truths she revealed and the rest would follow.
The runway in my life is wider now. I love more. The people in my life appear in technicolor and we all smile more. And it’s not that I was an exceptionally bitter or angry person before, but rather, my internal feelings are now more in tune with a greater design. Properly calibrated.
My once in a lifetime journey came and went in a single night, but I’m a man forever changed for the better.