Secret Garden

In the silence of the night, I escape the many burdens of the visible and retreat to a santuary safe and strong (1) -- a secret garden (2) hidden from vultures and thieves of the world. Deep in my soul dwells a tiny enclave where the dawning sun always warms the flower beds, the lush grass is fresh and lightly damped from morning dew, and hummingbirds are chirping delightfully from the wonders of every God's wondrous creation. Here is where I labor with exhilarating joy, dig gently into the good earth with my bare hands, and carefully bury my cherished memories: smell of the crisp cold morning wind I breathed when I unexpectedly stepped alone on the roof of my middle school dorm, scent of the beaten path while I strolled side by side with my mother across Canadian Autumn's frozen tundra. It is with naive hope that with each memory dead and buried, they will bring forth much fruits in a brighter and braver future (3). Intently I sit with patience and anticipation, waiting for each one to blossom into Benjamins, Tigerlilies and Dandelions.

When I was a child, i had a fever. My head felt just like two balloons (4). Unable even to twitch, my body, meticulously pinned down with surgical needles, was covered with a weighty blanket of rythmic piercing pain. With my mother's voice no longer audible, she hovered above me, fussed in general, and moved in slow yet definitive motion of significant artistic consequences, like black-and-white films of the cinematic twenties. In such solemn and surreal moments, for serenity, I drift mindlessly towards my soul asylum unperturbed. I pray my Maker will grant me liberation from the torturing physical cage, enable me to fly unintrusively above my secret garden, and let me feel, finally and eternally, comfortably numb.


1. "An so it goes," Storm Front, Billy Joel.
2. "Secret Garden", Bruce Springsteen.
3. John 12:24, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."
4. "Comfortably Numb", The Wall, Pink Floyd.