Sometimes it’s nice to simply enjoy a story. Yesterday I received that very opportunity. Sipping my 12oz. double latte with a pack of Sugar in the Raw, a fellow cafe patron introduced me to an heroine, and I’m relaying her story here for you.

This is the story of a warrior on a long road between battles. [She is not a belligerent warrior, she fights with Apollo, God of Light and Truth, at her side.] Like any mortal, she has not the immortal qualities of omnipresence, thus we find her employing two legs and two feet to arrive at her next destination.

Our warrior trudges down the road with determined step. Purpose provides her companionship and distraction from the amusements at the side of the road, which would otherwise pull her this way and that. She is a little weary, though she has not engaged in major battle recently. She has successfully stayed clear of energy-sucking vampires. She hasn’t had to look for a needle in a haystack for ages. “I have my good friend Purpose at my side, why are I not making better progress?” she wonders.

One need only look at the pack on her back to understand why. Though she is strong, that much weight would be cumbersome for anyone! It is a big bag, she made it herself, with pockets and flaps, compartments and dividers. Though it is well made, small items fall out through this seam or that one, unbeknownst to she who carries. If one were there to see such a small item drop from the bag, she might be tempted to call out, “Wait! You are leaving an item from your pack behind!” But then she might also be tempted to keep quiet when she sees our warrior deep in conversation with her good friend Purpose–should the observer interrupt her for such an insignificant thing? It would feel like returning a pebble to the site of a grand mountain. The observer cannot believe the mountain missed that pebble! But she would be corrected by our friend the warrior. “I had a reason for packing that little item and carrying it all this way,” she’d admonish, “now I have to make another one to replace it, so that I may put it in its place.” Thus she’d stop, plop her pack on the ground, make another little item, add it to her pack, swing her pack back into place, and continue on.

Now, our warrior is a smart girl and even though she queries, “Why am I not making better progress?” the truth is, she knows that a heavy pack with escaping items don’t help matters one bit! It isn’t that she wants to carry this heavy pack, and truly, she occasionally lightens her load by pulling out little, and sometimes big, items, and finds a perfect place along the road for them. But without fail, she’ll make more (she just can’t help it!) which just take the place of the ones that have recently relocated.

With encouragement from her friends, for she and Purpose had stopped to have coffee with their friend Efficiency, she decides to seek out the wizard D. Axtion in the land called Gabion Tachy-Daedal of whom she has heard many excellent stories! They say he can vanish a pack without losing any of its little items, or big ones for that matter! It is said he has the ability to place items in their perfect place with speed like no other! It is said he can carry on this work with nary a drop of sweat on his brow.

Our warrior thinks, “I must learn the secrets of this wizard! I must find his garden.” Well it turns out that the garden of D. Axtion is very easy to find, as would be the garden of any wizard who is happy to have his garden discovered. She need merely exchange a few stones from her purse to the traveling map seller to learn the way.

She really doesn’t know what to expect. Is it a place of magic? Is it a place of zero gravity? Is it a place of forgetfulness? [Like on the island where Odysseus and his men were lured and immediately forgot all except how to pass day after blissful day with the Sirens.] She must learn for herself. She exchanges a few stones for a map and discovers she is almost there!

She takes nourishment, applies sunscreen, refills her water bottle…. and finds herself at the wizard’s gate in Gabion Tachy-Daedal. She is welcomed by a sign on the gate inviting her to enter. Pushing open the gate, she steps through. Her step halts, her eyes widen.

to be continued…