The Sign (part 3)

During his journey across the desert, Zenith sat one evening near the campfire, contemplating the ardour within him. All around, his disciples were arguing loudly: they had a heated debate on the origins of metaphysics.

But Zenith was staring at the flames, lost in his abyssal thought. And for a long time he remained silent.

At one point, he raised his eyes, and suddenly all his disciples stopped shouting and turned their heads, waiting for him to say something wise. But Zenith was having a vision, thus he only spoke to his heart:

“Walking on the great sandy Earth, looking for more time, I reconnected with you: my human, all-too-human heart.

For too long, I looked far into the distance and felt nostalgia: so I unlearnt silence.

For too long, I focused on the future and dreamt of remote places: so I forgot my destiny.

Finally, I am healing from excessive health, and suddenly, in my vision, I can see it —

24 December 2023

It’s the sign.

Am I ready for it again?

As I walk in the warm savanna, right above me an eagle flies, with his claws grasping the morning light.

A snake coils softly around his neck, showing his new skin to the golden sky.

And a lion, sitting in the shade, looks at me with wet eyes…

Poised in front of the rising sun, I think: the time has come, my creatures are near.

And as I turn forever toward the horizon, the lion’s cry behind I hear:

«Oh Zenith, why do you leave so soon? Wasn’t the world perfect just now?

Weren’t we the meaning of the earth?»

My lion, you hadn’t yet searched yourself, then you found me…

And I feel him brushing against my knee: «Oh Zenith, you taught us once: “every happiness is a noontide — it must set, for a new day to rise”

And I see now the crepuscular in your eyes…»

As I stare toward distant peaks, my hand deep in his blonde mane, a tear or two fall on his cheeks.

By living alone I became old. Here, with you, my lion, I leave all my solitude. For to my high mountains, I was called.

Then, as we take the gifts of our last dawn, I salute the morning sun. And for a moment — or for eternity — I was him, and he was me.

But finally, the lion speaks:

«Oh Zenith, in you I see the centuries unfold! I know you must leave, so I shall leave, too. And when time will be fulfilled, the world will return to you.»

— Oh heart! what did I just see

under the shade of a savanna tree?

There is a lion who roars my name. A companion who wants me to stay. A friend who sheds a tear when the time has come… for me to dissolve: beyond this day, the morrow, and the dawn.

Oh heart, what did I just see?

It must have been the sign of destiny.”