Number-one bestselling author
A new year
is beginning,
its pathway stretching
out before me
like a yellow brick road.
I wonder what
the year will bring
and I contemplate
what will come.
I decide to meditate
on the year ahead
and when I
close my eyes,
I can see clouds
filled with light.
Reaching out,
I pluck one
of the clouds
and hold it
close to my face.
The scent of cinnamon
and oranges, lemons
and juniper blossoms
fills the air
and the cloud
is pulsing softly
with a soft glow,
as if the cloud
holds a small heart.
Inside the cloud,
there is a small clockwork boy
made out of metal.
A key should be there,
sticking from his back,
but it is missing.
I put the metal boy
back inside the cloud
and I begin to look for the key.
I look into more clouds,
each filled with something different:
a silver chain with a pendant shaped like a star,
a small music box that plays a tune I didn’t know,
a post card, but I can’t see where it’s from.
I open my eyes
and find a woman
sitting next to me.
She offers me a serene smile.
“You won’t find what you’re looking for.”
She says softly.
Smiling, she holds
out a hand.
I watch as
a cloud forms
in her palm,
pulsing as if filled by light.
“Think of these clouds as wishes. They show what might be.”
I thought about what she said.
“But then if they are not what is coming, what are they?”
She laid a hand
on one of mine.
“They are wishes, hopes and dreams. It does not do to spend time wondering what will happen. You simply have to live.”
I nodded, feeling
a light grow around me.
“Where is the key for the boy?”
I asked gently.
“Why don’t you know?”
She said.
“It is inside of you. You already process the key. What you do with it is up to you.”
Reaching out,
she touched my chest.
At her touch,
I watched as a the
outline of a key
filled my chest.
Though I knew it was impossible,
I could feel it there,
beating like a heart
inside of me.
“The key is a gift.”
She said, smiling.
“Use it to open what you will, but make sure that it unlocks brings you joy.”
I nodded, taking heed
of her words.
My sight began
to fill with soft, pulsing light,
so much so
that the woman was gone,
enveloped in a cocoon
of sublime brightness.
When I opened my eyes,
I was holding a key
in the palm of my hand.