The Power of Silence
By Kate Everson
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Kate Everson
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Aum… Aum… Aum…
There was chanting in the meditation room. The sound filled the small Temple of Life and gave it meaning. This was a prayer to the gods, to the soul of man, to the great One of all. It filled the void and made everything meaningful. There was hope here.
Finally, the chanting stopped and Zoe could hear herself think. She had not planned on coming here but had been coerced by her friend.
“What can meditation do for me?” Zoe had asked Matilda. “I know what I know. There is nothing more the gods can offer me.”
But Matilda had been persistent and took her hand to the temple, where they had removed their shoes and sat quietly in front of the golden Buddha. There were flowers and incense and chiming bells. It was all too much for Zoe who had been raised Methodist, but she stuck it out anyway, for her friend.
Something happened in that meditation room that Zoe had not counted on. She felt a presence. It was not the God of her church, she was sure of that. She knew all about Him and his Word. This was different. This was soft and compelling, like a woman’s hand gently stroking her face. A little shiver went up her spine. What was this?
She looked around the room at the others meditating, their backs ramrod straight, their legs crossed in Lotus positions on their cushions. They did not move, or smile, or seem to be alive at all. “Zombies!” Zoe thought. 
But still… there was that something that Zoe could not explain. Something touched her and she wanted to know what it was. Even after they left the temple, she could not shake it off.
“What was that all about, Matilda?” she asked. “What was supposed to happen in there anyway?”
She did not tell her friend about the strange feeling, but thought she could get rid of it with a good run in the woods or watching a movie that night. It was nothing.
Matilda tried to explain to her about the power of silence and how it could teach you things the mind could not. But how do you explain something that is unexplainable? Matilda gave her friend a hug and went home. She hoped it hadn’t all been a waste of time.
Zoe got home and went to the fridge for a drink. She reached in for the orange juice and suddenly stopped, her hand suspended over the juice jar. 
“Hello?” she said to the little blue being flying around in the fridge.
It was flitting everywhere, over the vegetables, in the eggs and on the custard made for that night’s dinner. It stopped to rest on a very large cabbage, its wings finally resting from its frantic flight.
“Hello?” Zoe said again, wondering if she had lost her mind. What was this? Effects  from the meditation? She had never seen anything like this before.
The little Light being just looked up at her casually and smiled. It began preening its wings. The gossamer wings were all different colours in the fridge light. It licked them like a cat licks its fur, over and over until they were shiny and light. Then she hopped down off the cabbage and stepped closer to Zoe’s amazed face.
“Hello?” she replied sweetly, and started to giggle. “Hello to you, Zoe!”
Zoe just about screamed. She knew this was not just her imagination. The fairy spoke to her!
“What… what do you want?” Zoe managed to squeak out.
“Oh Zoe,” she smiled. “Don’t be afraid of little me!” 
And she laughed so hard she fell down and rolled around in the fridge, her feet up in the air kicking while she laughed, her arms flailing wildly. 
“Oh, you silly creature!” the winged thing said to Zoe. “Oh you silly, silly girl!”
And Zoe’s eyes got wider and wider. She almost shut the fridge door. But then she stopped and got control of herself and asked one more question.
“Who ARE you?” she gasped.
The fairy jumped up and down in glee. “I am you!” she laughed and began flying all over the fridge again, this time landing on a carrot.
“I am you, Zoe!” she said. “Love me or fear me, Zoe, you can’t escape your own small self!”
“What?” Zoe asked. “How can you be me?”
The fairy just said, “Let me out of this fridge, Zoe, and I will show you.”
And as Zoe stood there with the fridge door open, the little fairy flew out and landed on her head. Zoe tried to shake it off, but it clung to her hair. Then it climbed down around her left ear and whispered something.
“How do you like me now?” she giggled.
Zoe went to the mirror and saw the little fairy perched upon her ear. She looked kind of cute there, and Zoe smiled. After all, if this was a dream, she might as well enjoy it!
Zoe had to go to town that day, but wondered if others would see the fairy stuck to her ear. As it turned out, nobody could. It was invisible to everyone but her.
She spoke to Mrs. Markles in the produce section of the supermarket, saying, “Hello, Mrs. Markles, lovely day.” But just then the fairy whispered something in her ear. “Ask her where she was yesterday afternoon,” the fairy said. 
“And where were you yesterday?” asked Zoe.
Mrs. Markles jumped. “Why?” she exclaimed, looking shaken. “Why do you ask me that? I was at home of course!”
“Ask her where she was at 2 p.m.,” the fairy whispered. So Zoe did. And Mrs. Markles got so upset she raced out of the store without even getting her groceries.
Zoe looked perplexed. Where was she yesterday? What did the fairy know?
The fairy just giggled and whispered, “Some things are better not to know.”
Zoe had to agree about that. But later that night, she sat down by the river to watch the sun go down and she wondered if her little friend knew some more important things. Like why was Zoe here and what would her life be like in the years ahead.
“Can you tell me anything about my life?” she asked the fairy.
The fairy smiled and began preening her wings again. “Maybe,” she said coyly. “What do you want to know?”
Zoe said, “Who am I and why am I here?”
The fairy jumped off her ear and dropped down to the ground.
“Oh! You ask very good questions!” exclaimed. “Just give me a minute.”
And the fairy went over to the river and jumped in. She disappeared beneath the water for a long time, and Zoe kept looking for her. Was she gone?

There was nothing but ripples on the surface of the water. Zoe looked in as far as she could but there was no one there. She began to walk home, but along the way she looked up and there was the blue fairy sitting on a tree branch. 
“Hello,” the fairy smiled and jumped down on her head.
“Do you want to know the answer to your question?” she asked. “You have to take a journey with me. Can you come with me now?”
Zoe said no. Of course not. But then, how else was she to find out? 
“Oh, all right… ” she hesitated. And before she knew it, she was flying through the air, hanging on for dear life to this tiny, teeny, little hand.
They flew over the hills of home, far into the beyond, up through clouds and more clouds to a sunlit place. There was a Dog sitting on a throne.
A Dog?
“Aren’t you supposed to be a God?” she asked.
The Dog barked at her. “Not here, not here, move along, move along!”
And the fairy grabbed her hand and they went higher. Up past the sun and into a black sky filled with stars. 
There was a God sitting on a throne.
Okay, that’s more like it! Zoe was beginning to get the picture now. They were here for some real answers.
She approached God and asked Him, “Why am I here?”
God said nothing.
She went up a little closer, trembling. “Why am I here?” she asked a little louder, in case God was hard of hearing.
God said nothing but he began to smile. He smiled so much that the whole heavens began to sing. The melody of angels filled the space and made her rejoice inside. This was such a magnificent place, she was speechless.
And then there was Silence. Absolute silence. Not a pin dropped. Not an angel moved a wing.
Zoe closed her eyes. This was it. The answer she had been looking for. Gratefully, she held out her hand to the little blue fairy who took her quickly home. In a second, she was there in her room sitting on the bed. The fairy was gone.
Zoe opened her eyes. Home. It was the place where her soul lived, where angels sang, where God smiled and little fairies whispered in her ear. This was her Mother Earth, the magical place where she was born to be, right now, living and breathing. And it was all perfect. 
Who she was and why she was here was not for her to know or even care about. Someone else had the Plan all worked out for her, and she just had to trust it.
Zoe smiled the next time Matilda asked her to go to meditation. 
“Yes, please” she said, and Matilda was surprised.
Together they sat down in the temple and closed their eyes. The sound of chanting filled the room and then there was silence.
And for the first time, Zoe was a part of that silence. The Power of Silence filled her with peace. She was alive in a beautiful world, and she was in touch with her own soul, and that was everything. 

* * The End * *
Read more inspiring stories at: The Power of Light, and The Power of Love, and The Power of Healing, and A Message of Faith, and A Message of Hope.