Today was ending with a quiet storm of subtle colors. It would be a great blessing to find rest after so much invigorating activity. As I walked down the lush tree lined country drive, I ran my right hand unconsciously along the tops of the fence posts of the smooth and bright white picket fence.

Approaching the thicket, just around the next bend, I wondered how I had arrived at this place - this place in time as well as in location. How had I become the manifest walker that I had written of following that series of recurring and recombinant dreams?

Had this reality really sprung from the words of my hand? The same hand that continued to touch each fence post? Or perhaps, I was still dreaming…

Arriving at the dark thicket just as the sun found its rest behind the dense forest beyond, I removed the small flashlight from my pocket and switched it on. I found the opening, just barely recognizable, (and yet, exactly as it had been in the dream) and moved the bushes left and right, making my way through the doorway of my dreams.

Just as I had remembered, the ground was tamped hard and smooth. The growth covered all sides as well as above. I had arrived at the place of my manifest dreams.

Just as I had done in the dream, I sat down near the center of this place, closed my eyes, and focused on each breath, each muscle, each thought. When I opened my eyes after five minutes or five hours, I really had no idea, I was surprised by the furry winged creatures surrounding me.

In my deepest imaginings, I could not have envisioned such wonderful creatures of contradiction. They hovered and were quite fast on their wings not unlike dragonflies. The leader seemed female in that she had a bold, yet calming glow and a deep and apparent kindness.

I wondered what she had been doing before arriving before the scores of creatures around us. For a moment, I was afraid to consider what occurred to m - that she was a kindred, my other. I somehow knew that she had been meditating as I had been just before joining our unlikely group.

I reminded myself to breathe as her piercing gaze overtook my remaining sanity and imprisoned me in my thoughts. She was frighteningly brilliant.