Lady of the Sun by Lee Rickwood
As little Ivy sat in the shallows of the lake, she became mesmerized by the sparkling water flowing over her legs, reflecting and refracting the warm sun’s bright rays. If she stayed very still, schools of small, curiously striped fish swam in circles around her and began brushing against and tickling her skin. Staying completely still in the midst of this wondrous new experience made it even more exquisite. She had never felt like this before. An exciting peacefulness fell over her and there was no separation between her and the lake, her and the fish, her and the sun. She had a deep wonderment and knowing that everything is one, everything is light, everything is joy and love. “This feeling is where I belong,” she thought.
That moment had marked the beginning of a new identity for Ivy. She was no longer just little Ivy Iversen, daughter of Osmund and Pauline, sister of Ingrid, best friend of Evie, school student, budding photographer, swimmer and always in trouble because of her curiosity. She was something larger, brighter, safer somehow. As she grew up she now had a special place to go to that calmed her when angry adults scolded her for not doing what she was told when it didn’t ring true to her to do so.
Thanks to her lake experience, Ivy was able to stay strong in what she felt was her essential identity and to live her life as a loving rebel and adventurer. Ivy’s life had taken her around the globe doing everything from travel photography, to working as a life saver at summer camps in Japan and as a macrobiotic chef in New York, to studying yoga and ayurvedic massage in India, to volunteering in Sudan, to walking many of the planet’s great pilgrimages and visiting its places of power…and the list goes on.
Decades after her lake experience, following a long period of illness that dramatically stalled the momentum of her life, Ivy found herself back at the lake…and its magic and thrill were still there.
On her first visit, she returned to sit where she had sat all those years ago, again immersing herself in the lake’s warmth, the light’s play and amidst the darting fish, re-experiencing that exquisite, original thrill of belonging to the sweet ecstasy that is life.
On her second visit she took her camera to capture the sun’s brilliance dancing across the lake and later found vast worlds and extraordinary beings glowing with light hidden amongst the sparkling, sandy-coloured abstract images that she’d captured. In one image, a statuesque, cloaked woman stood on a rocky outcrop, radiating her light and benevolence out into the world around her. Everything radiated in these worlds and, for a time, Ivy began to see the world around her in a similar fashion.
Soon after, the cloaked woman returned to her in a dream. In the dream, Ivy stood in the shallows of the lake watching a crane circle in the clear, blue skies above. When the bird landed, it shape-shifted into the statuesque Lady of the Sun. The Lady beckoned Ivy to follow her to the far side of the lake where, in a circle, in between aboriginal women and men, people from all corners of the Earth were seated. Ivy and the Lady of the Sun sat themselves down in the remaining two places.
Just as they sat, an ominous wind began to build and heavy, dark clouds raced across and filled the sky. The air became electrified and all the birds let out wild, cacophonous cries and came swooping from all directions across the lake. Fish leapt out of the water and onto the shore, thrashing there in their thousands. On the lake, enormous waves began to crash and reflect back the powerful beams of lightning that flashed all around them.
Yet all was calm in the circle and The Lady of the Sun said, “We have all been called here by the Lake to celebrate the dawning of a new Golden Age of peace, unconditional love and joy”.
The scene suddenly shifted and Ivy was once again the young girl sitting in the lake in that very place of peace, unconditional love and joy. And when she awoke, she was filled with a deep healing and trust in what the Lake, the circle gathering and the Lady of the Sun had given her.
The End.
by Lee Rickwood
(Photo credit: MM.Net)