Hemidemisemiquaver

Crochet artist who is an avid reader, who contemplates & scribbles her thoughts to share.....

     Right there, in the middle of the high vaulted ceiling of this empty Sanctuary stood a colossal mirror. 

    Perturbed by the contrast that I saw & what I had expected, warily, I walk myself towards the mirror scrupulously.

     Y in the world would this place be even salient? Mirror? Really? All that buzz...over a mirror?

Agreed it's framing is objet d'art & it has intricate gold panels. It rests on platinum poles that support it from center all the way to the floor instead of being hung on the back wall.

     High domed ceilings, no windows to let or reflect light. It's open during day & closed at night. No candles, no flowers & no incense sticks ever spread their smoke here. 

     Forlorn, eerie almost wraithy if you ask me. An intense feeling of foreboding fills me as I approach it. How in the world has it been coined as a shrine? 

     But that's my job, to bring to the world firsthand journals of things out there on this planet. Experience of very many jotted down neatly into columns in black & white literally & figuratively.

     I step towards it. I'm at a distance where I can almost touch this mirror but of course I wouldn't as is the rule for people that enter the reliquary besides one other rule being was to enter single person at a time. 

     I look at it, stumped. Other than being distinctly midget in front of this behemothic framework, I see no other reason for this reconnaissance. Disappointed as I'm about to turn, right in the corner of my eye a reflection in the mirror catches my attention. 2 humanoid sculptures are standing in the balcony behind me. Startled I look back. Half expecting them to be curators.  In the high arched balcony are 2 figurines on each corner facing the mirror with an unmistakable expression.

I look back in the mirror, unnerved, as each had remarkably unambiguous reflection of their expression. One had an unblurred expression of admiration. I almost felt the sculpture is in complete adoration of me. The other had an uni-vocal expression of contempt for me. I almost heard myself saying it loud...what have I ever done to you? I chuckle to myself.

       Things suddenly turn from odd to interesting..... almost amusing. 

       I take a slow walk around the huge space, hoping to excavate new jump scares & few more conundrums that might help understand the place. It had no manual after all.

       Nothing....

       I moved in a circle one more time & once again came face to face with the mirror. Had a quick look at sad & happy chisels.

       Doltishly, I focus back on the mirror. First letting my eyes move around edges of its circumference, then back to my reflection & then back on the vastness of its reflective expansive externality, the entire exercise made me ruminative.

       The question that had been nagging me since I stepped my foot into this building voiced again in my head.... WHERE AM I?

       When I focused back on the metallic vast reflective surface the question echoed back in my thoughts as ....WHO AM I? Reflexively as if wanting to affirm my retrospection I look first at the mannequin that adored me...& ...then spontaneously at the mural that condemned me as if wanting some form of ratification from inanimate objects. It took me few seconds to realize that my eyes have been cat clocking left to right, to my disdain. I closed my eyes for a brief second, and next when I opened them, I saw my unhinged reflection looking back at me in the mirror. The next question that ran through my mind was not only perplexing but elucidating......."Not Who Am I.... but... Who 'IS' this I?"

          Unanticipated, my legs tremble & my knees buckle making me kneel, as if unable to bear the weight of the answers that come rushing through. I bury my face in the cup of my hands as  my eyes well up not being able to come to face the 'Realization' that swiftly floods it's way through the maze of thoughts.