It was dark outside. The first glimmers of dawn were hours away. The air was cool and still. The cloudless night sky was resplendent with stars that cast a silver hue over the land. The only sound was an occasional cough or snort of a sleeper stirring on their mat. His bare footsteps on the stone floor were as silent as a cat. He passed through the doorway like a ghost; the click of the lock imperceptible.
He glided over the darkened landscape heading away from the lake and up into the hills. Alone. Eventually, after walking for about thirty minutes, he came to a grassy knoll and sat down with his back against a rock. He sat listening to the silence for a while. Slowly, he sensed entering a safe space where he was loved. Then he sighed and as he exhaled, the disparate needs, the helplessness, the doubts and fears, the repressed anger, and the superficial adulations of those he had healed at Simon’s house the previous day were released from his body. He exhaled again and then when he inhaled he remembered Simon’s mother-in-law—a nameless old woman who lived in the shadows serving the household. When she was touched by him, she instinctively rose and quietly returned to her duties. Of all the people he had met the previous day, she was the one who intrigued him the most. She understood her purpose and place. So he sat with that thought for a long time.
Eventually, as the black sky turned a blue grey, he asked the silence, “What should I do next?” And a thought came to him, “You have your answer.” And so he did.
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