Early Poet 2622

Dearest Bekkah,

I must tell you of the most amazing thing that happened today! Kassia and Gilly and I were outside the Temple, near the path that I have walked each and every day for over ten years, carrying buckets of water up from the well. I'm not sure exactly what I said to Kassia -- something about being angry at being required to still carry up the water in a leaky bucket. She said, to Gilly of course, "If she can't see, then she is as dumb as a cobble-block!" It has certainly been a while since Kassia has called me a cobble-block, so I was quite taken aback. And both Gilly and Brighteyes found it very amusing. I was very upset with both of them at that moment, Bekkah.

But then Gilly just pointed down the path, and told me to look... in that way she has, that means "don't just look, but see and understand." So I looked down the path, Bekkah. I don't know how long I stood there, because time seemed frozen. And when I saw what they meant for me to see, tears sprang to my eyes. It was astounding to see one side of the path -- the side where I was required to carry the new bucket -- a rocky and gray edge of the path, with dry and crumbling dirt, while the other side -- the side where I was required to carry the leaky bucket -- ablaze with color from all the wildflowers, with soft green grass edging the path. When I turned back to Gilly, tears still in my eyes and I'm sure what must have been a look of wonder on my face, she just nodded and said, "We are all broken buckets, Daxia."

It was a lesson two handful of years in the making, but so many things came crashing into my brain. There is a reason, a purpose for everything. Good can be cultivated from the bad. And, as Gilly said, we all of us have flaws, and even our flaws can be used for a good purpose. And I learned that standing up to Priestess Kassia does not make the world crumble to nothing. I learned that I must ride my own path, and not simply follow others down the path they have chosen for me. I realized that I will never be perfect, but that I can still strive to be the best I can be. I knew then that I must follow my own heart, not because that is what you have always told me I should do, but because I cannot be the person Daxia Yurisdotter is meant to be until I follow my own heart.

And tonight, when I played Doublebluff with Kassia? I won, Bekkah. After seven years, I finally beat Priestess Kassia at Doublebluff!

I hope you are well, both at the moment I write this and at the moment you finally read it. When I think of you -- every day, my dear sister! -- I imagine you helping and healing people with your kindness, and with the love and blessings of your Lady Attera.

As always, you have all my love,
Dazi

© Kelly Naylor
The Heartwood and all characters not otherwise expressly stated are © Kh'Lyh'ra Press / Mike Naylor