The trip to the higher place was such a great disappointment to me!  I guess I thought I would have major revelations towards my ultimate quest there.  When that didn’t happen, I felt like I had failed.  I felt like I had missed something important and would not get a second chance.  I became very discouraged and so traveled back to the guild house in a very unhappy mood.  The trip back to the guild was also uneventful.  I still wonder what there was to learn on this trip.  But, since nothing comes to mind, I instead imbed myself into life at the guild.  I enjoy my studio each day.  I create lots of art.  I make exchanges with the other artists and enjoy their company.  Time passes, without much notice from me.  I guess this has been a healing time for me.  Healing from the disappointment.

Then, a few days ago, when I awoke, I began to wonder about the other journeys I could take, if I was so inclined.  The thought was just a quick one, a twinge, like a high cloud crossing over the sun then leaving quickly.  But each day the idea became stronger.  I have now decided… I have to plan another journey.

My first step will be to select my destination.  That will not be an easy task as there are many, and each and every one of them could hold an important key or piece of the puzzle to the answers I seek.  I procrastinate for a bit.  Finally, today, I decide to pull out the destinations and the map and try to make a decision.  I am not good at making decisions, but I am going to make every effort to get myself started on my quest again!

As I traveled, I found myself lost in my mind.  All the thoughts of what I wanted to find, of how to find anything at all on this journey, of what the results might be wound around and around in my head.  Because of this, I was not at my best in observations nor enjoyment of my surroundings. I saw everything but saw nothing.  I merely plodded along heading for my destination without noticing much in the environments I passed through.  Now that I have realized this, perhaps the next leg of the journey I will be able to take in more.

I finally arrived at the highest peak in the highest mountain range of the land of Swallodonia!  There, my first activity was to lose my inner thoughts and to view the beautiful vistas surrounding me.  The mountains seemed to go on forever!  In the distance I could see the great oceans.  Nestled in the many peaks and cliffs and rocks I could see some clear mountain lakes.  The three hundred and sixty degree views left me feeling breathless.

After spending some time just looking around me, I finally began my first task for the Higher Place.  I began building my small shrine from rocks.  I spent much time walking about; gathering rocks I felt would work for the chore at hand.  All I need is a small niche that I can add a small journal with some writing in it.  The journal will be for the next traveler who visits here to add their notes too.  The building of the shrine is taking much more time than I anticipated, but it is an enjoyable task.  In the evenings, I ponder and write, trying to write something to leave in the journal that will be inspiring and encouraging.  I also meditate at times, hoping that I will see the parallel point of this part of my journey.  Why am I at the highest place, what is it I am to learn here?  I have not discovered this yet.  I can only hope it will come to me when I need the answers the most!  I am disappointed with the results, after so much exertion to get here.  Finally, downcast and discouraged, I decide to move on, knowing that I can always return physically or mentally when I need to.  I now turn to making a decision of where to go to next.

Today all day long many of the residents of the Guild House were in party mode!  The reason is for the travelers who are leaving in the morning for their first trek in search of their truths, myself included.  The day started with sunrise quietude, all involved facing east to the morning sun.  The sunrise was beautiful and caused us all to have an inner feeling of peace and correctness with the world.

After the sunrise, we all gathered in the copse of Aspens behind the Guild for a lovely campfire cooked breakfast.  That included Dutch oven fried potatoes, fire braised sausages and bacon slices, and fire baked pancakes with homemade jams and jellies made from the local choke cherry, apricot, and cherry trees.  Yum!

Next, everyone met in the great meeting hall to shake all the travelers hands and to wish them successful journeys.  Each of us, the travelers, were assigned a host for the day who led us from each activity to the next so there was very little stress with the ceremony.  My host happened to be the patron saint of the harvest, and so we also imbibed several glasses of local spirits also made from locally grown vineyards. I very much enjoyed the wine, and was so surprised to realize there was no alcohol affect in drinking it.  A benefit of being inside the protective dome of the Guild, they tell me.

We were served a wonderful lunch, most of which came from the gardens at the Guild.  The Guild gardeners, I was told, raises every sort of vegetables and fruits, and the Guild farmers also care for every kind of animal.  The Guild is such a lovely place to be, that I rather felt hesitancy to leaving.

After lunch, we were left on our own to prepare for the great feast and entertainment planned for the evening.  I had to preen my feathers and add a headdress, shine my toenails, and such.  I brushed my velvety arms and legs to make sure my whole being was as clean a sparkly as possible.

The feast, although a great ceremony, was rather casual, with all travelers and permanent residents dressed as usual, although you could tell, that like me, they had taken great care to spruce themselves for the occasion.  The great hall where the feast was held had remarkable acoustics and the speakers were so easy to hear.  They talked of the benefits of the upcoming journeys, and of the perils we might encounter.  Then we were asked to stand and let them know where we were to travel first.

I am going to the Higher Place.  I am looking forward to see what I will be able to view from there.  I have marked the route on my map and when I arrive there I will build a small rock kiosk with a note inside so others who go there can know I was there and how I felt about it.

For now, I am off to sleep so I can leave with the next sunrise.

The Guild House

Guild House is built of all natural materials; wood and rocks, metals, cloth, paint, and paper.  It is many colors, seemingly random, but together they charm the eyes of the beholder.  The colors are bright, cheery, beautiful! The main entrance has an embossed metal door that opens easily, leading me into the welcome center.  As I pass through the door into the center of the foyer, I have an overwhelming feeling of “home coming.”  A sigh of contentment and relief issues from my deep self.  From the welcome center, I discover I can keep moving through “rooms” at will to experience the many offered amenities of the Guild. I wander here and there from room to room, soaking up the beauty and the happy feelings each room seems to emanate.   I find the Great Journey Hall, where the floor tiles are made from maps of past travelers with major “finds” highlighted in gold, and the walls are covered with portraits of the many travelers who have visited and journeyed from the Guild House before me.  I spend time with the curators and workers of the Great Journey Hall, learning about past history of the Guild travelers.   Once I leave the Great Journey Hall I enter into a room housing a giant compass in the floor.  The compass seems to vibrate with secrets and knowledge.  The room is temporarily but permanently under construction, I am told.    The caretaker tells me that the Compass is always under construction as it morphs to fit the need of each traveler and the directions change as needed for the the traveler’s special journey.  I hope I will get to spend more time with the compass to see what it can tell me about my journey when I am ready to embark.

Early on Sunday morning, after saying goodbye to my special friends, the dog and an old cowboy, I flew according to directions on the Manifesto For Traveling to the Guild House.  My first task is to leave the invisible dome of protection that is over my village.  I am a wee bit hesitant about this, as I know once I leave, I am no longer protected from the bad elements one must encounter in life.  But, as I squeeze  through the protective wall, I become elated.  At last I am taking flight into the brave new world that surrounds the village where I have resided for so many years!  My feelings of freedom cause me to soar higher and faster.  I fly and fly and finally, suddenly, I am so amazed when I see the rooftops of all the many parts of the Guild House.  It looks like a village!    The trip from the village to here so far was uneventful but nice.  I am relieved I have not had to have any protection from anything on my way.  I wonder, does the protection of the Guild House and all it’s members extend out so far as to protect me as I travel?  I alight in the front yard of the Guild House.  It is an amazing piece of architecture!  I can see it has been added on to and remodeled by many loving hands and it is beautiful to my eyes.

The most prominent of these events in my mind is the opening of the fortune cookie’s box and the fortune cookie fortune.  I was just sitting around my very comfortable home with my friend Goldie (a golden eagle) as if waiting for something to happen.  I went to the cupboard to find a bit of a snack to share with our midmorning tea.  I found a strange and forgotten box of fortune cookies.  I sat the box on the side table by my chair, along side my cup of tea.  Once settled in comfortably, I looked at the box, the decor catching my eye.  The box overall was a very reddish pink and covered with lighter pink fish of an unknown species to me.  The name on the box read “Koi Kookies” -speciality fortune cookies for decerning beings.  I opened the box and picked a cookie at random.  I nibbled slowly on the cookie, savoring the sugary flavor, along with a sip or two of my tea.

Finally, I opened the folded piece of papr contained within the treat’s belly.  Here is what the fortune said:  ”This is your time of new discoveries, but you must reach out to take them in hand.”

My mind flew immediatly to a problem I have been muttling over for some time.  For my whole life I have wondered what is my totem and where would I find it?  I need to know this because I want to know what my spirit guardians or totems are and I want their protection.  In our tribe, only Father’s can pass on the information about totems, so, although I have lived a fairly normal life, I have not had the safety factor of being able to call on my totem for help in times of need because my father has always not been here.  I have been held within the walls of our protective village, a very safe environment, so I would not need my totem’s help, but, for my complete life, I have yearned to fly away from my small village to visit and see what exotic places exist, places that only tales told by others are known about.  I begged my mother to tell me who my father is, but she always answered that when the time was right, he would reveal himself to me, and so she has never told me more.  I prayed for his identity to be revealed to me but received no knowledge.  I read everything I can find on my family’s history and about totems.  I pay special attention to the growing herbs, specifically the ones that might allow me to travel in an alternate state so I could search for my father.  None worked.

Now, the Guild Mistress from Image-Nation sent the missionaries to our village with the invitation to join a special journey.  We could accept or not.  After some thought, I believe the fortune in the cookie meant I should say yes.  So, I did.