The Tiring Journey

            There was a time that I was hanging from the edge of a very high cliff. I'm not exactly sure how I ended up there. I think it may have been a combination of events that led me to the cliff, yet it seemed so sudden. In a blink of an eye, I was not only on top of this cliff ledge, but somehow managed to fall too near to the edge and slipped down the side. It was almost as though I had been pushed. Though I could not say for sure what had happened.

I was slipping and my fingers and arms were becoming tired of holding on. I couldn't get back up, no matter how much I tried. It seemed completely hopeless! I was going to fall soon! Fall to my death! I felt it creeping up on me. Making me feel weaker and heavier, and more tired. It was pulling me down, while I was trying to pull myself up.

Then, I saw a flicker! It looked like a flicker of light! There seemed to be some movement on the ledge that I was trying so hard to hold onto. There was something there! But what? Or who? Could they help me? Could they save me? Or would they just let me fall? At first I couldn't tell, but the light came closer. It wrapped itself around my hand. It seemed like a dream. How could light do this? How could I feel it's warmth and power when it was nothing more than a beam of light playing tricks on my eyes. I must be seeing things, I think. I'm just tired. I think I will just give up and let myself fall. It's too hard and impossible anyway! I might as well let go now since I will fall soon anyway!

But, just as soon as my fingers were slipping off the tip off the edge, that light that had touched my hand, seemed to become solid. All of a sudden there was someone reaching down. An actual person was reaching down for me! And just as I slipped, their hand grabbed mine. Whoever this was, they could not pull me up, but they still held me so I did not fall.

It was not long before another hand appeared and also grabbed mine. Now two hands! Two people! Two people were holding me and trying to pull me up! Could this be? Could it be possible that maybe, just maybe, I might live? They still could not pull me up though, but they were holding on tight and not letting go! We stayed there in our now shared struggle, for what seemed like years, or was it more like months?

And then, one of the hands slowly fades, and completely disappears. I feel myself start to slip back down the cliffs edge again as the one person’s hand that is left, cannot seem to hold all of my weight by itself. Our hands struggled to keep a firm grip on one another as I am slowly being pulled back down.
But wait! What's that? Another hand? Not the same one as before, but still a hand that is willing to come and grasp onto mine and help to keep me from falling any further!

Not long after this new person had taken hold of my arm, something else wonderful happened! The light! That strange light from before! It returned and is brighter than before! It seemed to wrap itself around the people holding me, and around their hands, and mine too! It seemed to completely engulf us in light, filling us with more strength and energy! And slowly, very slowly and gently, we all started to move. I was beginning to be able to reach the cliffs edge again, and once I did, I continued to be slowly pulled up. Closer and closer. Almost to the top! Can this be real? Could I actually make it? What seemed so impossible before, was now possible! I feel myself start to relax a little bit. To start feeling a bit more at ease.

Just as I reach the top and am about to be pulled right on top of the flat stone surface that I had been holding onto, for what seemed like forever, something happened! I wasn't quite sure what it was at first. It seemed like this tingling feeling. It started at my feet which were still hanging over the ledge. My upward and forward movement, started at first just to slow down. Then gradually, as this strange yet very comforting, tingling feeling seemed to move its way up my legs, and chest, and toward my hands, I wasn't afraid. I was more mesmerized and curious than anything else. It seemed so familiar. So inviting. So comfortable and soft. So tempting.

And then, without even realizing it, I had slowly been letting go of the firm, strong hands that had held me for so long and had offered me their strength to try to help me get my footing on that ledge. Once all I had remaining was a few of my own fingers holding onto the hands and the light that wished to save me, the tingling then stopped suddenly. I came out of my daze. It was then that I realized what the tingling was coming from. It was a darkness! It had slowly, without my complete awareness, made it's way up my body and had slowly been prying my hands and fingers open that had once held on so desperately. It was when I finally became aware of all of this, and realized that the darkness was just pretending to be a warm comforting feeling and it was in fact pure evil! That, I now know! I knew that it was too late.

I was too late and too slow! I let it creep up on me, willingly, with no fight or struggle at all. It was too late and my last couple fingers slipped from the grips of the ones holding me, and I began to fall. All of the hard work and effort, the struggling and fighting to keep from falling, now seemed pointless! I was falling! Now engulfed in the darkness that had tricked me so easily. I keep falling. Beginning to wish for a quick and painless death.

To my surprise and shock, I suddenly feel very wet and cold! Still confused and in shock, the thought comes to me, there was some kind of lake at the bottom of the large cliff that I just fell from! Maybe there is still hope! Maybe I might yet live! Could it be possible? As I break the water’s surface, I see that it is not such a nice lake as I had begun to think and hope. It was in fact, a deep treacherous ravine with rushing rapids and jagged rocks! I begin to panic!

As I panic, I am dragged down stream with the current and the rapids. I get tossed from side to side and pushed under the cold dark water again and again. Gasping and sputtering and trying to keep my head above the waters surface. This monstrous river that seems like it may yet take my life, then brings me to a place where the fast moving waters seem to slow down just slightly, yet not enough to allow me to fight against the currents to swim to one of the far away shorelines. I am able to catch my breath and can more easily tread water to keep my head from getting dunked back under. I am still being carried downstream to the unknown end of this nightmarish river, and possibly to the end of this crazy and terrible adventure! Whether it will end in celebration or in grief, it is not yet known. I begin to get tired from the effort of keeping my head up.

But then, I slowly come to realize that I am holding something in one of my hands! It's a tiny flicker of light! It somehow was able to latch onto me and I to it, during the fall from the cliff,
though I am not sure how and I am not sure why! I tightly grasp the tiny light in my hand and hope that it may somehow bring me comfort and peace, and possibly even, dare I say it? Life!

To be continued…