The Medicine Dancer

Chapter 3 - Breaking The Spell

That night after all guests had departed, Bahbah Lao picked up the mangled guitar taking it into the kitchen. He dampened a sponge with sea salt water, and softly cleanses the instrument with it.

Placing it gently on the floor on a mat he uses for meditation, he burns some incense and sits on the mat alongside the guitar. Hoping to get some inspiration from his meditation, that will guide him on exactly how to repair the guitar. He meditates with it for an hour.

After the hour of fruitless meditation, he's really tired and decides to go to bed. He takes the guitar into the bedroom, and places it on the table beside the bed. After only a few moments of lying peacefully, he drifts to dreaming.

The sky fills with brilliant shades of orange, pinks, and lavender. He's flying in the clouds, when he hears a low moan echoing in all directions. "What is it ?" He asks the voice.

"I am so tired. Everything hurts me." The voice weeps.

"Tell me how to help you. I am a healer, not a craftsman. I have no skill in guitar repair." He pleads.

"We are one, she and I. The instrument you keep, is a mere fragment of our body. Why do you dance for the sick and injured ?" The voice echoes.

"I dance because it brings them joy and laughter. It is their joy that heals them from within. I am only bringing to the surface, their body's natural healing abilities stored inside of every one of them. Their joy offsets their woes, thereby bringing balance. When balance is attained, the conditions which supported a thriving malady dissolves, taking the affliction away with it." He replies.

"And deeper still. What motivates you to do such healing ? What is the source of this energy that you project, to heal ?" The voice questions.

"I do these things out of love. It is....."

"IT is the answer to the question you have asked of me. How does one LOVE a broken bone well again ? Look to love, and love will guide you. This you already know. I am simply reminding you of that which you already know. It is a lack of love that is the root of my plight. For only by loving us can you restore what has been discarded, returning balance to make us whole again. Heal us......Love us...... Heal us......Love us...... Heal us......Love us...... "

The sky slowly becomes flooded with blinding yellow-white light, heating his skin.

"HUH!!!" Bahbah Lao awakens with a start, squinting and raising his hands to shield his eyes from the brilliant warm morning sun that shines in through the bedroom window. He's drenched in sweat, and looks over at the guitar on the table.

He gets out of bed, grabs a towel and some clean clothes and walks out onto the porch to put on his sandals. He saunters down the hill behind his cottage, to a nearby stream. There at the water's edge he says his morning prayer, and then proceeds to dance for himself. A celebration of sun, of thanks, of life, and oneness.

After his morning dance, he disrobes from his sweaty night clothes and bathes in the cold crisp stream waters. The coldness of the water is shocking, but only for the first few moments. After bathing, he towels off and puts on his clean clothes, rolling the sweaty clothes in the now damp towel.

On his walk back toward the house, he ponders what to do to repair the guitar. Those words: "Heal us......Love us......Heal us......Love us......" still repeating in his mind. He pauses to lean against a tree in his backyard, to sit and think for a minute. He hears the soft hum of the bee's overhead leaving the hive for more pollen.

"Hmmmm".

"How does one LOVE a broken bone well again ?.....We are one, she and I....Heal us......Love us......Heal us......Love us."