Inktober 2

second installment in the month long series

What would happen if you woke up in the morning and you discovered that you had been magically transformed into a toad? And you got scared because the superstition about toads is that they are evil spirits, who accompany witches as their familiars, who assist them in the carrying out of all things wicked. You had gone to sleep, a regular, ordinary human, but you woke up as an amphibian that people saw as an evil spirit. And, as you look for a pond to jump in and a princess to kiss you (although I think that princesses kiss frogs, but, because touching a toad might give you warts, the princess would bne less likely to give you a good smooch), you think about what and who you’ve become.

And you fall asleep as that toad and dream that you, the human, had magical powers, that you could bounce all of the way to the moon and sit there. Nestled in the moon’s lap, your view of the universe is clear. You can see millions of stars, both near and far. You see the earth, but in comparison to the vastness of the universe, the earth is very tiny. Insignificant even. You realize that humans don’t understand that concept that they and their planet are just a speck in a giant universe. And then, you look out upon the universe again, and you realize the beauty and the magic of its vastness.

‘Back on earth, where people can’t see the vastness of the universe and the tininess and insignificance of their home planet, humans are focused on their dreams of wealth and greatness. After you sat on the moon and watched the universe, you wondered why amassing a fortune mattered all that much. And you remembered reading “A Wrinkle in Time,” by Madeleine L’Engle. What you remember most about it was the dark thing that made it hard for people on Earth to see out, although it hadn’t yet completely blocked Earth, as it had blocked Camazotz. The dark thing took away your view of anything outside of your world and it represents evil and coldness and the chaos of the cruel violence that human beings inflict on one another, as they proclaim their cause to be the only just cause. You think about all of this, as you are not collecting a fortune in Monopoly or in real life, and you feel very sad.

You go out for a walk to try to clear your head of your fears and your sense of loss. You walk and you feel your sadness drip down onto your face. The sky is cloudy and it starts to drizzle lightly. It feels as if the sky is weeping, too. You look at the plants and at the insects and you realize that the microcosmos is beautiful. Within the smaller world of the plants and the bees and the butterflies and the dragonflies and all of the other insects, you have regained your balance. You’ve been wandering, and now you’ve found the place where you belong.

You laugh. It seems that vegetables have their own way of being wicked. Like creating peppers that are almost too hot to be handled, much less eaten. Being a human is a confusing thing and there are no road maps telling youmuch of anything beyond where to find tall mountains and where to find the sea. It doesn’t tell you where the coral are living and thriving or where the turtles sleep or where the great blue herons congregate in the winter.

You wish to rise up, to touch the sky and pull down a star, even though you know that is actually impossible. It’s a dream, a wish for something better, something more magical, something that cannot be grasped by your hands. You wish for the ability to reach higher and higher, to push through the dark thing that is clouding your view of the universe.

In your dream, you see a castle on a cloud or, at least a window. It’s colorful and bright. Your imagination has left the earth far behind. But you know that it’s just imagination and not your reality. You awaken as the human that you really are. You dry the tears that are running down your face and you try to remember your dream long enough to write and draw the meanderings of your mind.

Tomorrow: who knows? It could be anything!