The cave of the Elders

In the afternoon, after we had all rested, Patience, Sox and I sat off towards the shore which now appeared on the distant horizon. We were walking along a path, cliffs to our right and a steep drop to our left when I heard the sound of voices. I had not expected to meet anyone on this first day of travelling and curiosity led me towards the cave from where the sound was coming.

I tethered Patience and taking Sox with me walked quietly to the opening of the cave hoping to observe without being seen. However, as soon as I had come near the mouth of the cave a friendly voice shouted out,
"Welcome stranger, come in, make yourself known to us."

I entered the cave very hesitantly, but there was no need to be afraid, for there was a group of ten people, five men and five women sitting together, drinking tea, laughing and talking. After I was made welcome,I explained that I was on a journey, mentioned who had sent me (this brought a lot of knowing laughter and shouts of "good luck then") and asked them what they were doing.
"We are Elders," they told me "and our job in the world is to teach meditation, renunciation, and the way to a quiet and peaceful mind. We are about to meditate ourselves, do you wish to join us?"

I laughed, a hard cynical little laugh and said,
"I think you would have a job teaching me to meditate - and a quiet and peaceful mind? No chance...maybe I should go?"

One of the women approached me and took my hands in hers and said,
"Stay and try. Trying is meditating as well." She looked at me, examining my features and continued "Those who resist are those who need to learn to meditate most."

We sat in rows and the meditation began. Slowly, the Elder who was leading the meditation relaxed our bodies, stilled our minds and then asked us to repeat the words "peace" and "love" as we breathed in and out. Peace, love, peace, love.......

The known world disappeared. A feeling of bliss overcame my mind which began to clear. The anguish I had known, the pain of loss, the fear of lonliness, the bitterness of betrayal all began to dissolve, like a mist leaving my body....

When the meditation was finally over I was filled with inner peace and calm. The woman who had persuaded me to stay came and sat with me.
"Aren;t you glad you stayed?" she asked and I said that I was but that I feared that the feeling of bliss would not stay with me. She handed me a large shell.
"This is treasure for your bag," she said. "When you are in need of inner peace, place the shell to your ear and you will be able to take part in our meditation. Do not fear, we shall be overseeing your journey. We will be able to "see" you even when you do not see us, for this is a spiritual quest as well as a physical journey."

I felt calm and peaceful as I said goodbye to the Elders and walked out of the cave to find Patience......who had managed to somehow work her tether loose and was nowhere to be seen. So much for inner peace I thought as I ran like a mad woman trying to find my donkey.

I did find her, eventually, drinking in a quiet place, quite happy with life, a donkey smile on her donkey face. I on the other hand, was in a state of agitation, hot and sweating having feared that she was lost forever. I stroked Patience's ears, fed her a carrot, and picked Sox up to stroke her.
"What a menagerie," I said to myself. "Inner peace indeed......how will I ever achieve inner peace when I can;t even manage for five minutes, even after meeting the Elders?" and in that moment I knew why I had come on the journey. I was in search of that elusive feeling of inner peace, and the adventures to come would show me the way. That was why my map was so indistint. There were pointers, but I would have to do much of the work by myself, deciphering clues, guessing at directions, interpreting signs. The thought was at once cheering and daunting. I sighed and turned to my companions.

"Come on you two," I said. "Time to get to the sea.......who knows what we will find when we get there," and we turned towards the distant horizon.