Note: Given to him in a dream, this piece was written by local artist, Tom Barber. His hope, in sharing this with you, the reader, is that you will be inspired to just stop and think.

Sapphire blue with a core of purist white, a beam of light thousands of miles wide hit the earth with the intensity of a million suns.

Well, almost hit the earth. 

Something dark and dense deflected the incoming energy, preventing it from reaching the surface. Unable to make contact, the light bent and curved and in a dazzling shower of brilliance, flew out in all directions to disappear back into the blackness of the void from which it emerged.

But that something dark and dense didn’t appear to weaken the energy’s resolve. The searing beam seemed to possess all the patience in the world and showed no signs of letting up.

In fact, depending on who you talk to, this has always been so.

By far the vast majority of the world’s population was totally unaware of anything out of the ordinary going on. Amid penetrating moments of love and caring, they went about their daily lives struggling for survival in a world stitched together by the rotting threads of greed, cruelty, and injustice.

They would also, although some would way say with far too great a frequency, even resort to killing one another. Go figure.

But those aware of the presence of this mysterious force were a different story. They knew something big was going on behind the scenes. Something most magical.

When pressed on the issue, these searchers would look with eyes open wide in questioning innocence . . . in hope. And not without a touch of trepidation. For hope, after all, contains the seed of disappointment.

Occasionally though, one would break free from the bonds of the spiritual sludge of fear, and by an act of surrender and unfailing trust, find themselves above that dark and dense obstruction, and by throwing back their head and spreading wide their arms, soak up the origin of all.