The Heart Beat


(Written by Faustt)
A gift of spectacles; of sight, and of clarity. In a crowded world of manifold wonders, the teachings continued. The quarters were beginning to grow cramped, and his frustrated fits seemed to increase in intensity. To tread to freedom, the end of this woe, it will be the greatest of all gifts. This hovering darkness, thick and suffocating, it ripped at his eye lids. Open! Open them now! Again, he struggled, kicking against the walls that held him fast in place.The sudden calm of his carrier, his maker, is enough to settle him... for now. He was kept at ease by gentle hushes, and it temporarily quelled this fervent desire of escape.

March 4th, 2012
Lesson Three (written by Apeldille)

The little mind inside Herla is awake now; it knows there are more things outside this dark soon-to-be-cramped universe. There is the beginning of feelings now, and thoughts. Small ones at first, but becoming more complex as time goes by.
The mind wonders at the new experiences and visions. Sometimes there is light, sometimes there is darkness. The mind's eye is fully open, staring out, big-eyed and overwhelmed.

It knows there is not One, but Two, now. It and someone else. It has tried to reach out to the Other, but it got no answer.

And now, new things. It trickles in, slowly at first. A red-hot feeling, one the mind has never experienced before. It is intense and unpleasant, and directed at something outside. Some   one    , even -- the mind has learned the difference now -- and the little one doesn't like it. Universe is... angry.

The little one clings to the Other while it lasts, and then there is calmness again. Hushed sounds from the outside lulls it to sleep.

The mind has learnt anger. This was the third lesson.

Updated: February 14th, 2012
Lesson Two (Written by Apeldille)
Day and night has no meaning here. There are only periods of dream-filled sleep and periods of being slighly more awake -- but the boundaries are blurry and there is no telling where one thing begins and the other ends.
Dreams of an unborn weave back and forth. They consist mostly of darkness and warmth, of feeling security, and the ever present heartbeat of its world.

But something is changing now, and the little mind grasps at it. There is something new beside the darkness, something utterly strange and unknown and exciting. A tiny trickle, shining in the dark, a thin silver thread of consciousness finding it's way into the unborn's brain. There is visions of... whiteness. The feeling of something fluffy and white and not-warmth-at-all landing on one's back, and then the feeling of being close to someone big and warm.

The little mind marvels at this alien experience. It does not question how or why, it has only learned that there is something else.

This was the second lesson.


Updated: February 10th, 2012
(Written by Faustt)
It is but a reverberating silence, nothing but a rhythm. And yet, this rhythm, this beat, gives unto him an awareness. A fragile thread connects him, comforting him, feeding him. His nurturer, his protector, his world as her state of being becomes his own. And day after day, the dark and dawn enfolds. It feeds with lulling eyes that cannot see, and in her womb the mighty mother molds him and becomes his fortress on unflinchingly impregnable solidarity. An everlastingly optimistic light, it maneuvers him towards a paradise of divine rhapsody and unending exuberance. He can sense what will soon be known as fear; but with a multitude of hushed murmurs, he is again put into his state of calm.

February 7th, 2012
Lesson One (Written by Apeldille)
Warmth. Security. The little one does not know these words, yet it is all it feels, all it has ever known. How would you describe security to one who has never known danger? Warmth to one who never has known cold? To the tiny mind forming inside Herla, it is the whole universe, all there is and all there ever will be.

But the little mind is sensitive. It also knows movement, how the world sways back and forth. It knows hills and valleys and the elation and weightlessness of a high jump.

And now, the world is moving. Moving, then it settles yet again, and the world is calm.
Then moving again. The world moves a lot now, the little mind would think if it could -- but it doesn't, it just experiences.

And then, something happens to the world. The Sound, the ever-present Sound, the thump... thump... thump, becomes a thump-thump-thump- and then thumpthumpthumpthump, and this is the little mind's first experience with fear. Something is happening and it doesn't have the means to comprehend what.

After an eternity (or so it feels) the Sound goes back to the normal rhythm, and the tiny mind feels secure again.
For the first time, the mind knows Security -- it has tasted it's opposite.

This was the first lesson.