It Should Have Been Different

This entry is about darkness and how stories can show us a way out--

The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.  --Emily Bronte

For those wishing things could have turned out differently:

"as the ancient Chinese proverb says:  To dream of happiness is in itself a grief.  We are isolated and fearful.  ...our sorrow ... demands our attention, for even though the acute phases of grief are ... behind us, we still need to come to grips with the final remnants of our longing. ...

"We hear the final whispers of our protest that the way of the universe should have been different. 

"When our days and nights reflect such witheld mourning, it may be helpful to listen to the story of Coyote in the Land of the Dead."  --Alida Gersie

Coyote and Eagle-man set out on a journey to bring back the people, so they might be renewed.  At last they came to a grey, sombre land, where the sun was rarely seen.  When darkness was about to fall they reached the wide river which flows between the land of the living and the land of the dead.

Coyote and Eagle-man lifted their voices, calling into the darkening night that someone might send a boat to fetch them,.  Nothing stirred and no one came. 

Then Coyote thought.  His thought travelled deep inside himself, and he lifted to his throat an ancient song, unknown to him, and as he sang this song of power, a canoe set forth from the faraway shore, and made its way towards them. ...

I don't know where Coyote's song of power comes from.  I only know I have experienced the feeling evoked in this tale.  I have felt a thought, a longing, travelling inside myself, and I've felt myself rising to the power of an old, old song.  It is indeed a resurrection from the land of the dead.