The promise of renewal

Curling waves of energy formed, crested, and crashed in the broad expanse of my consciousness, while the sands of time poured ceaselessly, settling in the abyss. I was floating free in the bliss of meditation, and with each breath the cool night air mingled with the warmth in my chest. My mind was drifting like a ship heaved too in calm weather. Occasionally I would pull my awareness back to the vision as it unfolded and evolved. The stars turned overhead, and slowly, without noticing, the eternal calm of the night gave way to the coming dawn.

I awoke in a flash when the first sliver of the new sun peirced my awareness. I instinctively pulled my eyes shut against the blaze and took a deep breath, the events of the night coming back to me in a rush. After the music had ended and after our bodies had tired of dancing the crazy shaman dance, our rag tag group of friends decided to go down to the beach to enjoy a fire. Someone then had the brilliant idea that we should all stay up through the night to see the sunrise. So we lit the fire and passed the time telling stories of traveling and of our other lives that we lived while not on the road. I had dressed warm and was comfortable in the night air. When it had become quite late and we were all inevitably drifting off to sleep, I wandered off to be alone. Upon settling down on the edge of a small dune I piled the sand up under me to make a place to sit and meditate. My mind wandered the memories created in those days, and the memories of a lifetime.

I remembered the conversation I had with a guy from Auckland. He was young but I could tell that he had seen a lot of trouble in his life. We had sat together by the fire and he wondered aloud about all the craziness in the world. His stories of calamity and suffering blended one into the next. I didn’t even try to remember them, but it stuck that he was pretty much abandoned by his family and he had turned to the festivities of the Prana festival as a fresh start, too much trouble with drugs and fighting with his dad over work and what he was doing with his life. It seemed like everyone at Prana had a story to tell and I was no exception.

With the bright orange light of the sunrise shining in my eyes, I thought about why I was there at the Prana Festival and about why I had set off on this grand adventure. Was I looking for a fresh start, or running from some past that I still could not understand? Na...

“Renewal!”, I thought to myself as I leapt to my feet shaking off the chill of the night. I stretched my arms out wide and smiled from ear to ear, a new day had begun.