La Historia de Mis Comienzos [ES]

Conversation

I was sitting on a great rock, somewhere in this wonderful forest. The midday sun began to gently heat the environment, transforming colors, sounds and aromas. The forest seemed alive.

The old man had been wandering the forest, collecting roots. “Elder, who are you?” I asked as he handed me some.

“You see, I am an old lover of this forest.”

“Are you a druid?” I whispered, as if I were asking about a big secret.

Giledgel smiled cheerfully before answering. “I don’t know if I can consider myself a druid; there are many who deserve that title and I’m just a man dedicated to Nature, assisting in maintaining the balance.” After saying that, he settled on a rock and took out a leather case which held a small harp to accompany his story; he knew that my curiosity would soon overwhelm me.

“It was long ago that I decided to follow this path. Born and raised in a community that shared the supernatural characteristics that define me as the man I am, I soon chose to be instructed in the knowledge of life and death and the full balance that recognizes our pantheistic view: I would be a druid. Of course the path is not easy and many are not suited to it, so there are three positions of equal importance to which one can aspire within the community: The bard, the orator, and finally that of the druid.

“Before I made my choice I left home for a journey of contemplation. Oh, how many solstices have passed from that moment, and how different I was back then! Much time has passed and I continue on this journey. Every day something happens that drives me forward: new knowledge, new experiences, one is like a newborn when he learns to listen. Everything is wonderful and strangely new.”

I thought about the words of the old man while watching a beetle walking on the rock very close to him. I thought about what the old man had told me last night, on the divinity in everything, in every being, “What you perceive in this world is a transient manifestation of all; what separates you from a rock you just throw into a stream? Nothing at all. When you die, you will be soil, rock, tree. And if you consider that time is just a quirk of our reality, you will understand that everything that exists is part of one great divinity, a whole.”

“Sometimes,” the old man said after a few minutes absorbed in his music, ”Man misses the point. Your consciousness is detached from this reality of harmonious communion, confused, distorting the perception of its environment and creates imbalance in the individual. This imbalance is like a cancer that must be removed; otherwise it expands and alters the medium.”

“That’s a druid: one who understands the beauty of nature and can transmit that appreciation to others; one who, for love, works as a wise healer and protector; one who has accepted the responsibility to be judge and teacher in a world that no longer respects the balance of Mother Earth.”