Leaving for the Search

Proserpina

I sat in the seat, stiff and tense. Was I doing the right thing? I asked myself over and over again. The thought of my family, my children who I had left behind, Ria clutching my jacket, trying not to cry as was Piers. The twins had tried to put up a brave front before me but I knew they were worried.

After all that they had heard and seen, everything they had been through at such a young age, my heart went out to them. They had undergone so much…

And yet, I thought with more than a little sorrow tinged with pride, and yet, they continued to put up a brave front.

*

I thought back to something that a monk had mentioned in a discourse at Bhutan once, long, long ago.

‘Steel is created by placing iron in the fire and making it white-hot,’ the old man had said, smiling gently at his rapt audience.

‘So also, ‘he had gone on, his small, frail figure swathed in the crimson robes, small eyes twinkling in mischief, “we humans have to go through unspeakable pain before we become stron