Gaia's Story: Accepting Mother Earth

Prologue

How does one explain existence to those who have never known anything else? Inception is the spark to their living experience. Just as death is unfathomable to the living, so too is existence to the unborn. This is how I came to accept and comprehend those uneasy unknown sensations I felt the day I'd begun to exist. To this day, finding the right words proves to be limiting.

It began with what I now understand to be the feeling of warmth, seeping into every crevasse of my dermis. Lying on my back, an urge to move overcame me. Suddenly, light pierced my mind's eye. Every cell within my brain was consumed by electricity, my body pulsating upon the ground. First, there was emptiness, no understanding, no words, only innate physical impulses. When the light seared through my mind, I was flooded with information and a sense of awareness formed. I had become a conduit to unsourced electricity, containing while also amplifying the electrical messages within my corporeal being. Baffling, I know; sorting through my oldest memories still fills me with questions.

Still lying on the ground, I began blinking back my eyelids, drawing fingertips to my lips, toes digging into squishy earth knowing I had come to be. But who was I and where was I? Why did I find myself someplace unfamiliar and why wasn't anyone else here with me? "Am I alone?", echoed within my head during those early moments.

Dread overwhelmed me. I gathered my limbs around me and rocked back and forth as my eyes searched the scene before my eyes. I did not understand why I was alone or why this moment was THE moment for my existence to occur, but there was no time for worrying. My mouth was incredibly dry and instinctively I knew I needed water. Tried to stand, but I collapsed as I had no strength yet. Instead, I crawled and dragged my body to where I heard a loud rushing sound. After what felt like forever, I doused myself in a stream of flowing water, lapping up as much as I could without making myself sick. It tasted amazing and made the dryness in my mouth disappear satisfyingly.

After I drank for some time, this was the moment I glanced down catching a quick look at my reflection. Confused, I touch the surface of the water. "Yes," I thought excitedly, "Maybe I'm not alone!". My hand hit the water, and my fingers felt only the rush of water flowing through them. Yanking my hand away, I realized it was my face I was looking down at. A pit of sorrow burrowed deep within my belly. I believe this was how I first became familiar with loneliness and despair.