Chapter 10: My Wishing Well

BOOK OF SAGES

 

A path is a way especially designed for a particular use … it is also a course of conduct.

 

When in doubt, act. Action frequently leads to decision.

 

Beware the honeyed tongue of rulers too long in power. Listen to the words behind words and choose then your own path. Beware, however, of sedition, hold your tongue.

 

Fortitude is the most terrible of all virtues.

 

Tell the truth, traveller, or you create issues hard to overcome later.

 

Words of power should never be underestimated.

 

What is fair? Answer that, and you solve the riddle of universes.

 

News of arrival, when wished for and hoped for, spreads swiftly and requires no magic.

 

 

A young soul cannot distinguish between a lesson and an insult.

 

The most beautiful is also the most intangible. Often true beauty resides only in memory.

 

Even in utter darkness is the path present.

 

Freedom is more a state of mind than a condition of circumstances. Of course there are factors that need be in place to ensure the process, whether physical or emotional, and yet freedom is of and for the soul first before all else. In darkness and confinement a soul can yet experience freedom, although few will know ... and few will agree. There is another type of freedom and it is flight. Free of gravity a soul is also free of cares.

 

Even after all has changed, time has a way of bringing forth the familiar. One day you look around you and remark, “Nothing has changed.”

 

Trust your mind to reveal the truth. See it, feel it.

 

Every desert is special, for in its lifelessness it contains the secrets to life.

 

The wise tell us home is where one’s heart is. This, I believe, is to still the longing when one is in an unfamiliar port. Home is home, is it not? The stone, the earth, the sky above, the rustling tree of our first steps, of growing up ... of leaving. If one is blessed, one may return ... if only for a moment.

 

The surprise of fresh surroundings engenders insight.

 

Every plan feels like the best strategy, but every plan has an alternative and each can twist out of control. The best-laid plans refer to those sketched in brief, ever allowing for the unforeseen.

 

Do not attempt to inhabit another’s skin.

 

When a team functions in tandem, it is an effective tool.

 

Nothing exists in a vacuum. What this statement means has little to do with the likelihood of life in an airless space. It means all is connected, that function results from mutual reliance.

 

One cannot wander old paths without finding them altered.

 

Subterfuge, whether a small lie or a large manipulation, eventually turns back on the wielder.

 

What is true justice? If sentience is subjective, how does one measure true justice?

 

Every journey is different. Choose wisely before you embark.

 

Profess a willingness to change … and discover it is not as easy as belief engenders.

 

Thought is matter. A void, therefore, cannot ever be empty.

 

Magic in the most unlikely places has the power to astonish.

 

We are made for opposites. We are part of the multiverse, after all, and it cannot function without action and reaction.

 

Listen to the old and wise. They have experience youth cannot fathom.

 

The best advice anyone is able to share, when advice is sincere and may be regarded as less than criticism, is to be yourself always. On the other hand, to follow it, you have to know yourself.

 

Memory is subjective, personal, misleading, encompassing, and is the stuff of life. We are because we think, yes, but we are also the result of the years, events and experiences residing in memory. Without it we are born anew, and it is hard to start building a personality again … can one ever be the same?

 

Friendship is first in the call to duty. Aiding a friend is aiding yourself.

 

Catharsis is an intangible gift, and yet is a gift, a healing of the soul.

 

Same sex partners are as ancient as time. Many frown upon this and others are not affected. The truth is no one has the right to judge and there is no wrong where love is supreme. And now the codicil, reader. High rank sorcery is dangerous to wielder and bystander, and should thus ever be contained. But who are we to judge? Step forward, however, when two powers seek to meld, whatever the ideal or purpose, for then the danger is manifold. Unfortunately, for manipulators of the realms of sorcery, this means keeping same sex partners apart.

 

The past is with us always. We are the product of experience.

 

Oblivion takes many forms, although one can say only a minority attains it consciously. Sleep is a form of oblivion, but is regarded as imperfect, for the unconscious is more active during that period. When drugs are used, the user claims oblivion, and yet this cannot be. Too much changes within for that to be true. Death is not oblivion, for new journeys begin. What, then, are the forms of oblivion?

 

Coma can mimic oblivion, but this is rare. Degeneration of brain tissue heralds oblivion, a physical enforcing. Forgetting is oblivion.

 

Not knowing something is oblivion. Unawareness of truth is also regarded as oblivion.

 

Freedom must be paid for, whether by blood or terrible understanding. Freedom, true freedom, cannot be borne by weaklings.

 

How do you grapple with slippery nuances and then hold onto a facet long enough to affect the change required to alter a situation or perception? Faith, reader, and self-belief.

 

Delirium isn’t oblivion, but it can feel that way to the healthy mind.

 

To forget is sometimes the easier option. This is akin to stating ‘ignorance is bliss’.

 

Forgetting is also difficult to overcome. A state not only physical, but emotional, and it is emotion that creates the greatest obstacle.

 

A dual nature is of no use when evil is paramount. Duality, then, sickens the vessel.

 

Everything is relative, given sufficient distance, whether of actual miles or the march of time. Hark to that, friend, because something hurtful this day may become something else along your road.

 

Listen with ears and heart and then take the time to dissect the new information. Do this whether confronted by a family secret, a friend’s confidence, a stranger’s unwitting slip. Do this especially thoroughly when you are surrounded by your enemies. All has meaning; your task is to find the straight in the twist. Only then might you act in a manner to solve an issue.

 

If you would be counted, by others, by history, by yourself, place your mark where it is ever visible.

 

Abandonment teaches hard lessons.

 

Connections between us are imperative for sentience to function. Not all connections are benign, however.

 

Heat is able to arise from a mere thought. The chill of fear comes from a heart beating out of rhythm.

 

Memories are never what you expect when you examine them dispassionately.

 

Grief creates currents hard to swim from.

 

Love is a choice, as choice is part of love.

 

A simple touch is able to alter time.

 

Turn your back on the past if you wish for a joyful future.

 

Ignorance is bliss, some preach, and prefer a life of stasis to maintain such a state of ‘bliss’.

Knowledge is bliss also, the informed reveal, and seek to know ever more, thereby discovering chaos.

As in all, balance is key.

Tread lightly, seeker.

Wake up, lazybones.

 

No one needs more gods. You are, each of you, a god.

 

Love is a precious gift.

 

Thought is matter. A void, therefore, cannot ever be empty.

 

New paths are determined by new choices.

 

Rocks tend to keep secrets.

 

Turn the tables on others at your peril.

 

The winds of change are not always benevolent, but they should be welcomed, no matter the state, for it is in change that we discover renewal and purpose.

 

When you read your future, know that there will be both great moments … and heartache.

Available in print only: My Wishing Well