Train to Hell

Music playing is "Love Train."

My husband and I had an upset of some sort the past weekend. It seemed rather unimportant at the time. Yet, as I looked back, I realized that it probably was my fault.

"I’m sorry,” I said after the disagreement.

We hugged, smiled, and the energy was gone. Yet, I felt badly that I had hurt him.

Now I find myself traveling on this locomotive, going nowhere fast.

"Why do I just sit here?” I wonder as the train streams into the unknown future. We are moving so fast, I cannot see any view out the train’s window. Finally, we come to a sudden stop.

"Time to change trains!” announces the conductor.

Sighing, I get up out of my comfortable seat, grab my small rust-colored bag, ready to exit through the train door. I

realize as I stand up, that I am quite short. As I catch a glimpse of myself in the glass of the exit door, I also realize I am a five-year-old child, wearing a crisply ironed rust-colored dress. I sigh again, realizing this trip is going to be tough, since I am only a youngster. Not only do I not know how I got here, but I have no idea where I am headed. All I know for sure is that I am lost, and now I need to leave this train.

As I walk onto the train platform, I begin to feel a terrible panic. All I am able to see ahead of me, down the track, is metal and grease, half-hidden by hot steam. The polluted air is foggy and damp.

Steel tracks leading into other metal structures, grimy and cold, lay ahead. Nothing I can recognize, really. What it all is, would be anyone’s guess. As far as the eye can see, there are massive, greasy-cold, silver-grey metal constructs. Complicated. Huge. Unending.

No sunlight is visible here. No birds sing. No brook babbles nearby. There are no green trees nor any blue sky. Only metal and steel constructions...Purposeless.....Meaningless.... as if Extending throughout All of Eternity.

Within this huge, empty construct, I feel smaller than an ant.

"I am in Hell!” I say to myself.

Suddenly the next train approaches, pulling into the station.

As it comes to a loud steamy stop, the engineer sticks his head out the window, smiling at me.

"Where does this train go?” I ask the engineer.

"Hey Lady, I just take you where you need to go,” he kindly yells back.

"Where’s my husband?” I ask him. “Did you see him anywhere?”

"Lady, this train is going straight to Hell,” he responds.

I am awakened by the deep, raspy, sounds of snoring. It is my husband, soundly sleeping by my side. He sounds a little like a train, I chuckle to myself. Boy am I glad that was a dream!

Feeling Infinitely Grateful to find myself back on planet earth, I shuffle into the kitchen to make a nice hot pot of coffee.

Taking the steaming hot coffee outside with me onto our deck, I am overwhelmed with sensual delights. Redwood trees, Madrones and Oaks, an interplay of shade and bright, young sunlight of morning. The sky above is pristine blue. The birds seem very busy and cheerful as they hop about, flying, and singing their morning’s praises to The New Day. The nearby brook sings its own special songs, blessing the whole neighborhood with its cooling mists. I smell the smoke from some wood burning stove nearby. Breathing in deeply, I sigh a sigh of relief.

"Good Old Planet Earth, “ I whisper to myself, “Good old Mother Nature.”

What was that Hell, I wondered? Well, it certainly was not natural. It was Completely Man-Made. It could have been any number of Man-Made Hells, I would think.

One thing, though, was certain: It Was The End Result Of Technology For Technology’s Sake.

Perhaps this would become the end result of The Whole Technological Revolution......some kind of “Techno-Hell”.

A chill runs through my body as I remember the gray, sterile scene.

I thought back to my relationship with my husband. What were those things that usually took us away from each other? Was it really the occasional disagreement?

Well, each evening there was television. That took care of several hours per night, right there.

Then there was the web site I was creating. I had been pretty obsessive about it, at times.

No....it wasn’t the occasional argument which separated us. It was much more often our indulgence into Technology. It was The Information Highway. It was Cyber Space. It was The Whole Multi Media Madness.

As I finished my hot coffee, looking out onto Mother Nature’s Majesty, I thought it might be time to check to see if there were any new E-mails on my lap top.

"ALL ABOARD!” I suddenly heard shout inside my head.

"Hmmm....maybe I’ll sit here a little longer,” I said , petting my enthusiastic dog’s soft black fur, smiling to be a part of this Very Alive, Brand New Day.

MAY THE FOREST BE WITH YOU

(Unfortunately, there was a divorce on April 19, 2007. This dream my have been prophetic.)

DROP THE BAGGAGE

One of my favorite musicians, Miten, has created one of my favorite pieces, "Drop the Baggage." It is available on his album, BLOWN AWAY. Great lyrics, WONDERFUL dance music! All is published and copyrighted Prabhu Music, 1999. All rights reserved. Available at www.mitendevapremal.com

"We gotta drop the baggage. We gotta travel light. We got a long road ahead. And we'll be moving day and night. We gotta drop the baggage. We gotta let it go. We got a long road ahead. Some friends of mine living on this earth. They got a hunger for the inner search. They got the eyes of the mystic walking on the path of love. It's the way of the heart and it don't come free. Living and dying consciously. They got the eyes of the mystic walking on the path of love. Like an arrow. Like a warriors spear. The days of the conscious revolution are here. We got the eyes of the mystic walking on the path of love. I got no promises. No guarantees. But it can happen to you if it happened to me. I got the eyes of the mystic walking on the path of love. Oh I can feel my heart. Oh every beat of my heart. Oh I can heal my heart. That's what I heard him say. We gotta drop it...!"

anupama@ahastories.com

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