Twenty-six crossroads

Briskly walking through the hallway, excited and exhilarated, the next door was opened for me. All my life, I’ve had to enter through several doors. Each one had written on it, “Hora.” There were some strict rules guiding the hallway. You only enter once and never return. You also didn’t know how many doors you would enter through. I had crossed through many hallways and doors, and yet they were all so different. Each room brought its own beauty. Beauty in the hallway meant the carving of chaos and bedlam into new shapes. You would meet people who were of the same mind, those who were also trading with hora. Everyone was busy, including those busy with just whiling away with her.

Hora was as old as anyone in the hallway could ever remember. Despite her age, she is more beautiful than the other criaturas. She brought healing to people who passed her by; it was healing both sought and unsought. Everyone in the hallway had to depend on her to carry out their daily tasks, and she never got tired. She would wake Dom as early as possible and let Luna rest. All these she did for the visitants in the hall. However, Hora can not really be said to be a friendly woman. For example, even when everyone depended on her for their tasks, she never waited for anyone. If you want your tasks completed by the end of the day, you would have to run and catch up with her — quite a firm and energetic old woman. We had never met an old one like her all through the hallway, so everyone wondered at her strength and energy.

Approaching the twenty-sixth door, I thought to myself, “I have come this far. Dios has been good to me”. Dios was Hora’s father. He was the determining factor of how many doors each one would pass through. He did this by making Hora available to us. He was stronger than Hora. In the whole hallway, he was the definition of strength and any visitant who needed some for their daily task would go to him to receive. No visitant knew how he became, but we all had this premonition that we came from Him. Every morning as Dom approached, people in each room would rise up and yell, “Buen Padre, Buen Padre, Buen Padre!!!” Not everyone was privileged to see Dom every day, so when anyone saw her, they were ecstatic and would give thanks.

I entered the room full of thanks. After all, some of us who started the walk together had gotten tired. Some battered, while some wanted Dios to close the doors against them because of the caos in each room. There was caos in each room, and every vistant was expected to make something beautiful out of it. Like a teacup in the hands of the ceramicist, caos was mouldable and responded like gold in the hands — quite the refiner. Though I had determined to make caos into a beauty to behold, I had pitfalls here and there. I would again wonder what this new room meant, how I would handle this teacup, and perhaps, if I needed help, to speak to Dios, who knew everything. My previous room had been full of life and wars, obviously. I had successfully reached plata, conquered some fears and gained some level of independence, at least from the everyday call from mamá. For every vistant, interdependence was what we were all expected to grow into. Independence from every visitant and dependence on Dios. He loved it when we relied on him. I had learned to live in independence from brothers in the hallway but not mastered the art of leaning on Dios. It takes grit, courage, and lots of exercise; I will keep working on it.

The rooms here are monumental, with sizes enough to take as many visitants and structures- eterno. However, there were very few structures with many visitants. Scientifically speaking, the structures were supposed to be directly proportional to the number of visitants that have passed through the hallway. The first thirty rooms as we were told by the popular sect El sabios usually had few buildings. They had said that the visitants who had gone ahead of us were waited for by Hora the hasty woman and hence, the Sabios advised us to erect eterno as quickly as we could. As a result, they insisted that every visitant entered each room with a clear design of the kind of structure they’ll build. Of how we would cut the grasses in the fields, if need be, and begin to build eterno that would remain for other visitants to come, live in and build upon.

I was not the only visitant in this room. A lot was going already in the few hours we had just entered. The visitants were still partying upon entering successfully, I was thinking of the pattern I would use to build my structure only to hear that mamá was sick. This was the least I wanted to hear. Just like every visitant, I only always prepared my mind for suerte. New rooms usually presented suerte as we liked to call it. No one knew when we’d meet them, but we all prepared and hoped to see suerte. Only a few were usually prepared to receive caos when she came. I was perturbed. “How do you enter a new room and begin with caos? Why now and me? ” These were the questions on the tablet of my heart and I needed at least a sabio to answer or maybe Dios himself. Quickly, I packed my bags and went to meet with her in the treatment home. Little did I know that this was the advent of a new phase for me.

Trying to figure out what I needed to focus on in this room, I realized she needed my attention more than ever before. I could not focus on myself any longer as I had always done in the previous rooms. Taking care of her in the home – Bathing for her, massaging her legs and talking with her about Dios who she knew already; were few of the things I did for her. We would wake up with songs and sing to Dios and tell him how good he had been to us. Little did I know that those were moments I would hold on to for that was the last room she’d ever be and that through those acts, I was building a beautifully white magnificent, structure that would remain when I left the room. Paciencia and fe were pillars we needed to learn to build because they were needful in every room. I soon learnt that my worry would not erect those buildings but action and perseverance. Preparing to leave the room, I became more confident that I could build and leave great eternos behind only if I learnt that I could trust Dios and use every caos as building stones for a beautiful structure in every room.

The walk continues, for herein lies my twenty-sixth, my twenty-sixth door.