The warrior's nature; part two

THE GIRL

She’d previously made up her mind to make some progress in the things that mattered but circumstances were not easy and the wherewithal still eluded her, or perhaps it could all be put down to time management where too many happenstances had her at large from herself so that she was following too many loose ends that were not conducive to quiet contemplation for her to bring to the light those imperatives that needed to be dissolved once and for all; but perhaps her empathy made her feel too much that was not all hers to feel.

She was hoping that the road to redemption was not fraught so much with obstacles but the more she thought about it the more they came until she was quite distracted in her own makings; and so she decided to change the subject and move on and hope for clarity…
“The litmus test of any endeavour must be the doors that open to allow it to happen, for if all doors stay closed after the first step has been taken then the endeavour flounders under its own weight,” said Dante, hoping to be helpful.
“What?” said the girl suddenly noticing Dante again and who had now fully materialized in front of her.
“Perhaps you are using the wrong yardstick to measure it all by,” said Dante.
“What other yardstick is there?” asked the girl who had by now stopped walking in circles and was listening to Dante speak.
“You must knock on the door of your perception until the door opens.” And with this, Dante became quiet as the girl began her task.

KNOCKING ON THE DOOR

So there she was banging away at the door of her perception and not getting very far when the first lorry load of doubt arrived to say that she could be banging for a long time and still the door might remain shut to her.
“Doubt doesn’t cost too much at the beginning, maybe a few disheartened stray thoughts, but if you let it carry on it builds up on itself until you’re reeling under its onslaught; and if you give up then you’ve then set precedent for the next time, and if not resolved it could find you running from everything until you’re so exhausted and worn out you turn away from every challenge and seek safety, and then one day you find all your time has been used up and all you have to show for it are the patterns of your repetition inside and out,” said Dante, who paused for a moment to see if he had the girl’s attention and then carried on:

“Sometimes the path is obscured and you can see no way forward; this is the time to take a leap of faith, and jump.”
The girl took a deep breath and jumped to land on the first stepping stone. Her momentum carried her on to the next one and the next until the river had been crossed and found her grinning on the other side and amazed to have made it on a wing and a prayer.
Little did she know then that crossing the river is but the first part of a long path to finding the key to open the door of perception that can tell you how to use the key to open the door of perception that, etc.
“This is a strange concept and one of many along the way that will have to be realized before the next stepping stone appears,” said Dante, pleased that the girl had found the first stepping stone.

The girl was pleased as punch and stood there grinning wildly.
“Crossing blindly on the other hand just gets you to the other side and you miss the clues that each stone has to give, and without learning the lessons you may have to do it again at some time in some other form and as each form is different and comes only once in the same way there is no preparation you can do other than to intend before hand to embrace the journey as it comes to be travelled.
Not each clue that comes will have its own designation; there will be times when the pointing finger will have to be ignored and the emphasis placed on the heart and what it tells you, for the mind will give you much information, it is the great deceiver after all, whereas the heart can always be relied upon to point true.
The trouble with this is that it may not fit into your agenda and you then try to shoehorn yourself into the mind’s dictates to get the result you want.
Are we so brave then to become what we must from our defeat?” said Dante to the girl, her grin now vanished. “And if in our becoming we lose our fear for change do we not die a little to become more?”
The girl wanted to know more, but she wasn’t sure about who she was talking to, but curiosity overcame her and so she said: “Tell me more about this becoming.”

“In our falling are we not giants with wings to tumble and then rise up again and become what we cannot lose?
When the sword falls, how much of our destiny sees us beneath it, and how much is it our choice?
Silence in solitude brings answers to the warrior who must dance this; but only after rising to claim it.”
“Hang on a minute,” said the girl, “I’m not a warrior, I’m just a little bit fallen and need to get back on my feet. It hit us all hard when the queen lost to the builder; most of us cried and couldn’t believe what had happened. For me, I just didn’t want to live the same life anymore and so took the long road away from all I knew, and found myself here.”
“Snowflakes anonymous,” said Dante.
“Yes: snowflakes anonymous.”

“Then it is here you have come, and here you will find what you are looking for.”
“I have fallen and become lost,” said the girl, her head bowed in sadness.
“Those that stay fallen must be counted as lost; and grieved when the time comes to do so, if honour is upheld.
Those ones who are lost before they fall must be cast from the circle when found or else doubt and defeat will come to infect even the strongest hearts.
But for you, you lost before any fighting was done, and even if your queen had won you would still have lost.
If in the warrior’s heart the battle has already been won there cannot then be defeat for that warrior, for the war is not fought on the field, it is fought inside where the fear rises and if conquered there, then the greatest battle has already been won and all other battles will be but a skirmish and will be seen for what they are in the greater fight as but some darkness come to assail the light.
“What if the enemy discovers all your hidden secrets and tells them to the world?” asked the girl.
This will hold true even if the enemy takes wind of it; only those who have won through can uphold this; all others will be but a noise to this truth and can be recognised in that.”
“What about all my friends that I lost?”
“To the warrior there are two types of friend: those who ally themselves to the fight and afterwards go home, but at a later date change their allegiance if the winds of fortune change; and those ones who have battled and won on that field inside long before the outside battle has begun. These ones meet somewhere on the path and know that what they face is but another part of them-selves, and that battle has already been fought.”
“I felt like the world had let me down after the queen lost, and now I just feel alone,” said the girl looking very alone.
“When everything and everyone stands against you, that’s the time you have to stand alone and be firm in your resolve not to give in.

This could be your finest hour and the time you show the world and yourself what you’re made of.
This all usually happens when you stand up for something by getting so far along your path that you see a truth others not so far along haven’t seen yet.”
“But I did stand up for what I believed in, and it still let me down,” said the girl.
“There are ones who have other interests in opposition to the truth and so will refute you and all you believe in. There are also those that don’t want to grow and through fear of losing what they have, even though what they have is not worth the losing will defend it all the way to the grave.

You must find the truth inside you and defend that.
There are also back-stabbers who will worm their way into your confidence and smile in your face as they sell your secrets and relish your death when it happens, and by the time you find out who it is, it’s too late.”
“The enemy was too powerful,” said the girl and began to walk in circles again.
“You were attracted to where your opponent wanted to lead you, and that was your downfall,” said Dante watching the girl walking around him in circles.

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