2023’s Call to Adventure
What adventures await at the birth of a New Year?
In the Cathedral of Calendars, a boy waited in the cellar, waiting to be born.
He heard the singing of angelic choristers harmonizing over the top of far away demons, the demons dug deep down into every day.
He hoped those demons would be kind to him, as he knew the angels would, for he was as naïve as his tears. But of course, like every year, there would be time to grow. To become wise.
He sat on a step, swinging his legs. He was alone, and the room was cold. All he was, was himself, that and all the days that were about to burst out of him. His eyes were yellowing with potential and his hair was shining bright.
He knew he could not exit through the cathedral until he was called. Called to adventure.
The walls around him were a warm beige, sweetly delicious and comforting. They soothed him, in the womb of the cellar.
There wasn’t much to do in the pre-days but to sit, and think. That and to watch over the body of the old woman wrapped in linen on a coffin in another room. Her name was fading now, but he thinks she was called 2022. She looked at him kindly through weakened eyes.
“You will be called for,” she said. “Just wait for the sound of bells.”
The child nodded.
“It’s a good life,” the dying said, “Like everything, gone so quick. Make it count.”
Bells sounded. She held his hand. The boy listened to the bells until her hand grew limp.
The boy stepped out of the room and into the corridor. The door above the steps leading upward was open.
Does he walk through and began his life? And what life could that be? What awaited him?
He was frightened. Maybe he should stay. After all, what child would willingly leave the warmth of any womb if they had a choice?
He heard singing blazing through the doors, and he smiled. People were counting on him.
Yes, he thought as he approached the light, he would begin his life, through the open cellar door. The adventure of 2023 begins.
