The Feeling Begins

The feeling begins. The strum of an acoustic guitar, liberating, like a door once closed: everything is open waiting for you. Hidden beneath, it lingers. It has resided deep below for so long you are not sure if you should coax it out, keep it imprisoned or extinguish it once and for all. Energy lulls at first then slowly builds like the rapid beat of a million drums, echoing, reverberating, drawing you forward. The path leads straight ahead, little option if chosen. Yet, comfortable and safe. It is the book opened by many, words taken as gospel, a route often traversed because it guarantees arrival. Arteries branch, providing continuance, current, continuity of thought. Violating the typical, establishing a resonance of pulsation, melodic and cathartic, a heartbeat, speeding and thrumming. Instinctual and emotional. It rises, bringing with it an unravelling, extrication and resolve. Luring you, sheltering you from the storm, temporarily, you hear what you want to hear, disregarding the uncomfortable truth. You must face it, claim it, no one can rescue you from the unavoidable. You feel like you might be sinking in the vibrating quagmire from which it escaped. Trapped before you ever realized, its mission.

Stripped, exposed, the storm subsides but the after-math surrounds you. Raw, vulnerable, uninhibited you stand, tired yet exhilarated. It is a temptress, demanding a new frame of mind. Forcing you to move over and give it some room. Unrelenting yet tender. Ensnared by its beauty you choose not to escape. Committing to the battle, regardless of carnage or bloodshed. It provides you the schematics then slips away to avoid capture. You are left to be the renegade in this rhapsody. The reverberation begins again, percussion, beating, beating, numbness in your feet, gravity seizing, knees hit the ground. You are caught up in between, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, consequence catches up, no more excuses, you leap. You can laugh it off, but from this valley, eyes are peering from all sides. You chose to stand amidst the crusade for this is really who you are inside, but no one knows it. You fight, undeterred. The campaign has ended, you remain, emerging into reality. Wiser for the effort. Relaxing for merely an instance, owning it, believing in its cause. Before the feeling begins again, strum of an acoustic guitar, easing your troubled mind, it is tempting you, it is easy for it is a calming voice, you are a captivated audience. It has bewitched you before, it is relentless and you are welcoming.