The Woman of the Woods

SoulCollage® card - The Woman of the Woods

She instructed me

to come to her,

told me that if I did,

she would train me.

When I asked how to find her,

she said to come to the woods,

and I would be found.

So, I followed a path through

dense redwoods, and arrived at

a cottage in a clearing.

She stood outside, as gaunt

and skeletal as I remembered.

In front of her stood a fire pit.

 

"The first thing you have to do,"

she said, "is to learn to sit

with the fire."

 

"What kind of training is that?"

I thought.

But I sat down near the fire.

And do you know,

I could not stay with it?

Either I got up,

or I wandered off

in my mind.

 

She shook her bowed head at me.

straight white locks swinging side to side.

"I am an old woman, not a child,"

I snapped at her.

"You have no idea

what old is," she said.

 

"I tell you, you must be with the fire.

Once you can attend,

once you can carry it with you at all times,

once you are incandescent,

then we can begin."