THE REALM

Chapter Seven

  I missed my horse. It really hadn't been mine, but for a while at least it had been in my possession. I really didn't have anything that was really mine.

  "You have your soul, which is of great value Benaiah."

  I glanced to the side at my benefactor as I gestured angrily to my head, "What's up with this reading my thoughts all the time? Don't you have something better to do?"

  Kuri glanced around the still desert scape that we were wandering through before his gaze finally came to rest on me, "It would seem that I don't."

  I shook my head disgustedly and looked away. Well, at least he was honest.

  "How do you do that anyway?" I asked.

  "It's a gift."

  "Can you teach me?"

  "No."

  Well that was abrupt, I thought to myself.

  "But I will teach you other things if you're willing to learn."

  I looked around for a moment before my gaze came back to the warrior who seemed to have adopted me. It was hard to tell how old he was. He had scars that bespoke of hard-won experience and while there was some gray in his beard I didn't think that it was so much a sign of age, but rather of burden.

  On the whole my companion did seem to be rather burdened of spirit. Almost as if he carried the weight of the world on his broad shoulders.

  He struck me as both very wise and yet as one who didn't put forth his own wisdom rashly. While I was someone who lacked control over my emotions. Just like with killing the soldier, when emotion took hold of me I was a lost cause, until my emotion was spent.

  Kuri wasn't like that. He had control over his emotions.

  "Could you teach me to be……?" I found it hard to put into words.

  "Controlling of your emotions?" Kuri inquired.

  "Yes."

  "Now why would you want that?"

  I blinked, as that wasn't a question that I had been expecting.

  "Why wouldn't I?" I asked uncertainly.

  Kuri remained silent.

  "Isn't it good to have control over one's emotions?" I asked, still uncertain of how I had gone wrong.

  "Mastery yes, control no."

  This man was utter ridiculousness with the way he seemed to twist words! What was the difference? Mastery versus control?

  A question came to mind. Who had the mastery, if I was the one exerting the control?

  I glanced to Kuri, "Mastery, how is it done?"

  Kuri smiled, "Well, it starts with listening, as opposed to talking."

  "What do I listen for?"

  "No talking Benaiah. Just listen."

  "I……" Kuri held a finger up and I stopped.

  I waited, but he didn't say anything. How was I supposed to learn, if he wasn't going to teach?

  The thought occurred to me then, how was I supposed to learn if I couldn't first listen?

  I blinked, as the value of that truth occurred to me, which meant that I had just learned something. Okay, now what? More listening I guess.

  Kuri was still headed southward and the pace we kept was a fast one. The water and the food had really helped to restore me and I kept to his fast pace rather well.

  What was that sound?

  The sound of the sand first giving way then falling from my foot with each stride forward. I'd never paid attention to so simple a commonplace sound as that of sand moving underfoot. It was quite rhythmic in the ebb and flow of its resonance.

  I found myself speeding up slightly just to hear the difference of the sound as the sand compressed and gave way beneath me. A bird's flutter of wings nearby sounded loud to my ears and my eyes caught the bright yellow markings of a So-so bird in flight.

  The regular beat of its wings, alternating flashes of color, the sound of its melody trilling out in soft chords of musical harmony, all set against the heavier bass sound of my relentless journey across the sand was inspiring.

  There was another sound. My breathing. It was loud and yet it had rhythm to it, even purpose as it drove my feet to create a beat of their own.

  I listened to all of it. The fall of sand, the steady beat of my heart, the beat of the bird's wings coupled with its sweet notes.

  There was an order to everything, a consistency of will. There was my will to move. The bird's ordered existence to fly and sing. The sand to act as sand. The sun to remain in its fixed progression across the sky. Nothing I saw or heard existed of itself. Far from it.

  Everything was rather at play in a tandem array of intentionally purposed design. I hadn't designed myself, nor the bird itself, and yet everything around me flowed in harmony that was ever variable and always changing. Even changing as it was, it never outpaced the design which governed it.

  Everything then must be subject to mastery. Mastery of a divine origin. It wasn't about control or me having mastery. Rather it was about El Elyon having mastery over His creation of which I was a part.

  The mastery of self was in learning to give over mastery to the Master of all life. How long had I thought that I existed in and of myself, when in reality I had always been a part of all the divine design that was around me?

  I'd been like one wheel of four on a wagon, loose on its axle, causing a dis-rhythm to the whole ride of the wagon. As a wheel I couldn't fix the problem, but rather I was reliant on the wheelwright to set my wheel into balance, even so I was reliant on El Elyon to set me right in life.

  It wasn't about me being in control of anything, but rather me being reliant on El Elyon to keep my purpose for existence continuing on in the rhythm of all life. Wow!

  This was really amazing. I turned to say as much to Kuri, but he wasn't there. Where was he?

  I saw him then in the distance. He had to be almost a mile behind me!

  How had I run so far?

  I sat down in the sand, suddenly exhausted, even as I contemplated on what I had learned. There was so much I still didn't understand! But I understood more than I had before, which was progress.

  I glanced at the sunny sky overhead. Was El Elyon watching any of this?

  Was I alone in my discovery of my need for my Creator to take charge of my life in order that I might fulfill my created purpose in the rhythm of all life?

  "No, you are not Benaiah."