Gold and Silver

It begins with an image. Imagine yourself falling, falling through the world toward the river of molten gold. Fall through the air, breathing in the chill of winter, breathing in the cold, breathing in the snow on the breeze. Fall through the air, a rocket out of the sky, falling from your nest in the clouds, plummeting to the earth. 

Look down and see. See the earth reflecting the light. Light flows from the windows man has made, it illuminates that which has ever been dark, bringing sight to the animals of the night, to you. Close your eyes as you fall. Close them and feel the wind on your feathers, flatten them against your skin, lying your ears flat against your head.

Imagine the people below you. Dream of them as you fall. Dream of their lives, their wanderings, their hopes and fears. Dream of the way the world was meant to be. Dream of the darkness of night, the silver moon above you which no longer shines. No longer does the moon shine here, in this light the man has made.

Dream of the golden haze around you. See it as it gathers and thins, a mist in the eyes, spreading out across the land. See the gold as it wanders through the home the man has made. Watch it weave among the nests of man, bringing light to their paths, creating rivers of gold. Rivers of gold guide you as you fall, as you fall through the air to the ground. They guide you as you dream of flight, dreaming of the paths you have taken over the city, dreaming of the paths that mark out the sky. Paths flow up from below, creating the highways of the sky, the paths of the night creatures, the paths you yourself have traveled.

Remember dear, remember your wings. Open them as you near the earth. In the final moment open your wings and feel them caught by the invisible. Invisible hands catch your wings as you open them, lifting you out of your fall and casting you back into the air. Lift your wings, feel the wind beneath them. See the river of gold flow across your feathers, dividing for a single moment before closing and propelling you forward.

Rise. Rise from your night fall. Rise on the tide of the breeze; feel your heart lift as the wind gathers you, gathers you in and carries you as it carries the snow. Feel your heart lift within you. Watch the nests of men disappear as the chill lifts you into the sky.

Look out above and see the stars shining, gaining power as you ascend into their domain. Rise. Rise and touch the river of the sky. Flap your wings and feel their tips brush against the water that separates the stars from the world. Feel your feathers gather in the moisture and carry it to your body. Feel it well within your soul as you rise into the land of silver: silver you were meant to live in.

Rise out of your fall and fly onward, flapping now in rhythm with the moon, and flying on into the night.