Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Lemurian Abbey

Lemurian Abbey
Dear Abbess and fellow residents,
I need to make a small confession, or perhaps it is a series of small confessions.
Let me start with the key. Yes, I too found a key in my cell. I had been hiding out in the scriptorium, doing my little sketching on the odd scraps of vellum, after hours when I realized it was late and I should make an attempt to get some sleep. So I padded quietly through the abbey, back to my cell. Everything was very still. I went over to a niche where I knew there was a fresh candle and I lit it. As I did this I noticed a beautiful old key lying there, with a tag. On the tag, very worn and hard read, I made out the letters EPIPHANY. Where did this key come from? What would it open? Instead of waiting till morning to ask the Abbess if she had lost such a key, I figured I would just go back out and look around and see if I could find this EPIPHANY. There was no sleeping now.
You see ever since I was a child, I've been fascinated with keys and where they may lead. I had a story book in which a boy and girl are exploring the countryside, a green rolling hilled countryside, when suddenly they discover an old iron key. They carried it with them and soon they came to a big rock and in the rock there was a hole, the shape of a key hole. They tried their key and sure enough it fit and suddenly they found themselves in a whole other world. They met a queen in dark robes and you know this all I can remember of this story. I don't know what happened to the children, I don't know what happened to this magical place. But ever since then, I have been collecting keys in a little leather bag, hoping that one day I'll find the end of the story, or a rock with a key hole in it.
So here was another key, begging me to take it exploring. How could I do anything else even though morning prayers would be coming too soon. So back out into the corridors with my fresh candle, and I wandered somewhere close to the scriptorium, down a corridor I have walked every day since coming here, and I saw, as if for the first time, a door with very unusual iron work. My eyes were drawn to this door. So I looked for a keyhole and sure enough there it was, with EPIPHANY stamped into the iron work.
With heart beating wildly (I was sure it would wake everyone, the drumming sounded that loud to me) I tried the key. The door flew open. It seems that there is a whole huge secret workshop space right next to the scriptorium. In fact it seems to wrap itself around the scriptorium. As I wandered around in this space, I couldn't believe my eyes, such tools, such vellums, and leathers, and pigments. Every where I looked there was spaciousness and possibility. Things were beautifully organized and just begging to be worked with.
And so that is why you haven't seen me for a few days. I've been lost in this most beautiful hidden workshop, behind a door with the word EPIPHANY stamped into the iron work. I've been working on my Book of Days.
I have much to show you, so although I am making my confessions I have to say I was not wasting my time.
Most sincerely your anchorette,
Lani

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