11/19/10 gentle encouragement

He has a gentle heart and a round face, and he encourages by telling a slanted story, a story that might be about you, or it might be about someone else. He tells you to fight, and how not to fight. He tells you to be yourself. He has brought you berries and iron and a pair of shoes, things you will need for the road ahead. He tells you a riddle, and at first you don't get the gist, then you realize that it pokes fun at everything ridiculous, and it allows you to laugh. Laughing, you put on the new shoes, which help you walk magically quietly. You take the iron and fashion a breastplate, which you use as a decoration and jingle, since the universe is such that you don't need protection, you need touch, allies, healing. He tells another joke, and you laugh louder. He has his own flock, his own field to tend, so he makes to go. The day moon has left the sky. You stain your mouth with the berries, and they allow you to tell the truth. You don't like being treated the way of the past. You are at a crossroads, a confluence of stream and river. He has been rescuing drowning souls and is pressed for time. His message to you has been an aside, he has more important things to do than to instruct you. You must find your own way. But somehow, the berries, the moon, the shoes, the stream, the rescuing, the souls you see who are better off...somehow this makes sense, and the low grey clouds of early winter lift, and you are again alone with your thoughts and your purpose.