I guess I had to rewire my mind before I knew I could take another step. My shoes wouldn’t allow it. The shoelaces laid tattered across the wooden deck, almost asking me to take a dive in the ocean, slowly trying to squeeze through the cracks in search of a cleansed sole.

It was 4 a.m. and I could feel the rising energy in the East just above my right shoulder. The dock was dark with only that last light on the pier lit. I didn’t know why I was here, nor where I was, all I knew is that I was here and I was starting to sense the presence of something else.

Spider sense, check, as the salty mist from the waves crawled up my neck and almost amplified the hair lifting feeling I had going on….something was close, but my eyes weren’t exactly tuned to this current reality just yet. All I could make out was the end of the dock and its swinging lamp crying out for WD-40.

I turned around to see the outline of a far off mountain range lit up by that wonderful yellow moon. I knew I wasn’t entirely off the planet I was born to, but somehow I had forgotten just how these feet turned into “these feet.” Turning back I focused back to the swinging lamp at the end of the pier, and there it was. A dark shadow held its position just beyond the swinging light’s reach. I hadn’t seen this thing before, so as a dumbstruck traveler, I pushed my sluggish feet past their rooted soles.

The wind was stronger now, yet the ocean was calm and happily undisturbed. It seemed as though it was having a fun time with the moon lit reflections, pushing them up through the water soaked wooden boards of this old pier. With each step, I felt another whisper of air behind my ears. “Go forward without worry.” What was this crazy dream? Who are these voices? What the hell is this tall dark figure at the end of this pier? And with the arrival of this questioning tsunami in my mind, another strange thing occurred. This time a little more chilling…..

I heard a loud cry above, a screech that pierced my cold skin in every pore that owned a hair. My vibrations started rising with this screech. I had heard this creature before only as a kid, or was it just a kid memory? What came first? The child or the memory? My feet stumbled as I jammed my left toe into a raised board. My face was now inspecting the exact moisture content of the wood pier. I was confused to no end. I had a mouthful of wood, soggy socks, untied shoes, a neck full of standing hair, a screeching being somewhere in the dark clouds above, a dark figure at the end of this pier….which I still had no idea of its place or time, but somehow I knew the time of day…….4 a.m. Ok. I had to start feeling without thinking. I could feel the sun’s presence, even though it was dark.

Slugging my legs back into a vertical position, I raised my eyes into the night. I opened my palms to the sky as a light rain began to start its gift. I felt the sun lining within my lower back, turning its rays inward and through my spine, yet rising and giving me a warm sensation that was two bumps away from bliss. My hands almost felt as though an invisible plate had grown through my palms, now collecting the water. I continued forward toward the end of the pier with my eyes closed and my shoes delicately moving forward.

I reached the end within a moment’s time, as the swinging lamp cautioned my presence to a nearby cliff and again a dark figure. I kept my eyes closed for this was too much to think about…..the swinging lamp keeping the color yellow and orange in the corner’s of my eyes. I heard a voice, not through my ears but through my heart. ” Keep still, for you are near what others fear.” I asked through the silence if this had anything to do with the screech from above, the dark figure responded with a soft, “No, your mind’s perception is distracting your inner light and its call.”

I couldn’t think anymore, and I had a feeling this is what the dark figure was here to help with. Turning my thoughts to a puddy of swinging light I let them settle to a silent calmness. At this moment the light stopped swinging and the light on the other side of my eyelids was now constant. God, what did I eat before? The dark figure shifted its weight to a point where I could hear something fall gently on the pier floor. The voice said, “Open your eyes slowly with a clear mind and an open heart.”

I did so, squinting for the swinging light had transformed into a sun, just rising above the horizon in the most splendid sunrise I had ever seen. The ocean closest to me was a deep purple, with hints of a glowing red and flickers of orange sparks, all comprising the white lit road back to the source. My eyes adjusted and my heart flickered back on, now I could sense my heartbeat in every cell of my body.

The dark figure was gone, and as if my presence had created it, a flap of two giant wings signaled the arrival and landing of a giant golden eagle. The great bird was eye level with me, as it used the side rail to peer through my still blinking eyes. Cocking its head back and forth, it ruffled its feathers a few times before it settled into its perch.

“Where am I?” I asked this giant golden being. The eagle turned to the sun, and then turned back to focus on my childlike wonder. “You are at the horizon of new beings.” I shook the dirt off my chest and kicked my shoes into the ocean. “Excuse me, giant feathered friend, you can talk? Also, the horizon of new beings? Does this suggest I have died?”

The bird with a closed beak, looked at me and placed its words now within my head, “You were never really “alive” in the first place, therefore, how can you die if you were never alive? And this horizon of new beings is your creation through your intent. Your soul has called for us to respond, the universe shall provide, for you are a part of that provision.” Great, I thought to myself, not only does this bird drop an intellectual bomb on me, it tells me that I am now alone on the edge of an endless ocean. “You are not alone,” snubbed the bird, “You just haven’t let your mind go yet and cleared your soul.”

Another great, here I am in a stoned confusion, and I’m getting intellectually spanked by a golden eagle. “Ok,” I thought, ” So where to now? If I am on the horizon of new beings, does this mean I have to invent a mode of transportation to get anywhere or shall I just make my new hut on this very pier?” The eagle squawked in a determined protest. “You are here because your soul asked the universe for a new dream.”

At this moment memories flooded over me in a suffocating attack. I saw murder, I saw pollution, I felt the cries of the children, I screamed in horror. An eagle’s cry brought me out of this inner mind cycle…..I took a deep breath in the remembrance of the past lives I had seen and lived. It washed through me, through the cracks in the pier and into the space beyond.

“Will I ever know everything? Can my existence become that same spirit which resides within those feathers of yours?” I asked, shaking off the nightmares.

The eagle shook its head as it opened up its wings in a wonderful display of symmetry and gold. “When you understand that your mind is only an imagination of your existence, then you will truly experience love within the universe for which it was created.  Let your creation flow from your soul for it is this communication that speaks directly to the creator.  Dream on my friend….”

Watching the sun lit tips of its feathers flap off into existence, I slowly felt the warmth of the sun from the inside out and at that moment, I knew I was ready to create within this universe that which I was meant for……to remind you to dream.