By
Jerry D. Smith
One Sunday Morn in the winter of 1995
The dust settles on the glass top of the coffee table like stardust blanketing the thin air of the vast, timeless, and emptiness of space. In its quietude and serenity, and now almost motionless settlement, a near calm and peacefulness permeates the blackness and silence with only the starlight from the multitude of vastly distant stars interrupting this sweet unfolding. There has been another layer of stardust placed on this life’s existence. For all the previous sprinklings and the ones yet to be layered, life remains as it was intended to be: lived.
Stardust…..another layer.
Atop the coffee table lies a blue leather-bound book at a slight angle dusted with particles of stardust. This book, the book of holy truth, has been opened and the words written so long ago have stirred many questions within my identity. Although most of the words are thoughts, ponderings, or judgments based on life’s almost seemingly endless journey of many, many years, their messages have tilted the delicate balance of my “self” into seeking or formulating new thoughts about my life in general. Though I briefly pause to interpret and comprehend the full meaning of their written visions, I fully understand the eternal, unwritten wordless feelings and experiences in yet another important, but hidden book: the heart.
Stardust…..another layer.
Alongside the book rest an ornately framed mirror of baroque décor of heavy metal ornamentation of curves and lines. I pick up this mirror to check and evaluate my reflection. Knowing as I do that most people in society tend to project themselves as “the image in the mirror” until the time they feel secure to break with the bonds reflected in the glass and the mercury, I only allow myself to see the physical vision of my image without projecting it as who I am. I gaze cautiously, but hopefully, at this reflection and marvel how pain can manifest itself in such deceitful serenity. Quickly, the vision and the pain vanish and is replaced by my truth: “Seek the person and not their image.”
Stardust…..another layer.
Standing in a metallic frame only inches from the mirror is a set of pictures of two people each occupying each frames and facing one another displaying bright smiles of happiness outwardly created by the naiveté of time. A captured moment of harmony frozen from turmoil.
Stardust…..another layer.
To the right of the pictures is a bud vase with a single rose so fragrantly filling the air with its sweet perfume. The rose’s fragrance permeates the air but with dying intensity for it has little life remaining. Who and when someone will come to care for the rose is unknown, but Life will create the needed happiness nonetheless.
Stardust…..another layer.
