Across Time Part One For Liza

Once we crossed paths in Athens. The sun blasted the white stucco buildings with waves of heat, ignited the Aegean Sea to liquid fire, and we were dazzled... You were a priestess in the Temple to the Unknown God, and served with the devotion of a believer who waits centuries for the arrival of her God. In her certainty she greets every day as if the weight of time were as light as the flight of doves from pillar to altar at the shining height of day. Who was I in those faraway days but a fool, consumed with worldly profit and the might of arms. I marched past the Temple of the Unknown God, the proud head of armored men, brandishing an ivory-hilted iron sword I expected to ensure my worldly glory. I left behind the Temple, shining in yellow light, and you, enveloped in its glow. Again, ages later, we crossed paths in a market town of many thousands, protected by a mighty Duke, whose armies criss-crossed the vast surrounding plains, running amok. They slashed through fields and villages, pillaging, stealing, raping, until the mighty Duke summoned them home to their stables. He distributed the stolen wealth among them, giving me a token of his take. I served that wicked master with both eyes open, I served as a scholar and a healer, practicing the arts of peace with a war-lord. I amassed my private treasury and lived in luxuriance. You were there. You were a Guardian of the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace, whose sweet visage was reflected in being. People of the market town, women and men and children, all lived in fear. Every day they brought offerings to Our Lady of Peace, and whispered as you raised their prayers of thanksgiving, 'Is she not like a sister to our Lady? Is she not an emissary from above in our midst? ' Even the ragged soldiers of the mighty Duke, drunk in daylight, wanton at night, walked quietly past the Shrine, even bowing their heads. And your gaze flowed over the crowd, always searching. But I slipped past you, in pursuit of prestige, proud of my erudition, vain, ever vain, oblivious to your grace. Time became heavier than I could bear. I wandered wearily, restlessly, hopelessly from one dark place to another dark place. I remember a huge mountain looming against my sight, I remember a climb that took decades to achieve, I remember an abyss that beckoned me, and a fall into silence and nothingness in a second! A long sleep must have followed, a sleep which coerced me to abandon my glory, my ambitions, my Self. One moment in millions of moments, I dreamed of a flight of doves, and I recognized your presence in it. Another moment I dreamed Our Lady of Peace smiled over me, and I knew you had interceded... The rest was only a heaviness and a blankness.