Genesis
This is how most stories should start: the ethereal blackness of space, and detailing nothingness.
Here, in a senseless void, we can glean a deeper understanding of the primal state. We must place this in our memories, so that in moments of duress we might recall it and know that in the beginning, there was only empty darkness.
No feelings of loss or melancholy, for those have not yet been discovered in this place. No shattered dreams or sad reminiscences, for we have not yet had those experiences.
Upon the staring face of that eternal night: let there be light!
Just a pinprick at first. This is birth, as we would articulate it. No sudden explosion of chaotic sound and color to traumatize our newborn awareness. Here, we are in control. Just the tiniest point of light, glowing faintly in the distance, a muted star. It is so indistinct, so dim, that we cannot be certain if it is even there.
Then, it begins to grow. Slowly at first, then gaining more brightness over time. Mild enough that we are not blinded by its majesty. No, we become aware of the light and its power under our own terms, for we are here to master not only ourselves, but also the universe that we will be birthed into.
The light fills our field of vision, suffusing our reality with a beautiful golden glow within which we may bask. A radiance that comes from all points and enters us in complete union. This is our light. This is that which we have created.
It is now that we understand and accept the warmth for what it is. The light heats us, and we realize that the dark and empty place where we dwelt was intolerably cold. Yet it was a frost we did not feel until we passed beyond.
The light is at once a gift and a curse. It shows us the potential of the time that lies ahead while illuminating the folly of the time that has passed. We see the light as a guide. Though it is mindless in itself, it came from the mind, and in so doing must have purpose. We lose ourselves in the contemplation of that purpose, and on occasion we shiver with the recollection of the void from which we have come.
We are alive, again.
First draft: 140420
Published: 230104