Laurel Hostak Jones

"In the beginning, there was nothing but a tiny seed, and inside it, though it was very small, was the potential and possibility for everything that would or would not come to be. There were planets and stars and animals and people and plants, and also thoughts and dreams and smells, and everything else growing inside this tiny seed, everything you can possibly imagine and infinitely more, all unrealized and shapeless, but undoubtedly possible. No questions lay unanswered about the true nature of things, about the quest for happiness or the cure for pain. There was no word yet for “home” because there was nothing outside of home. There was no procreation because all of creation incubated inside the tiny seed. There was no need for love because all was one. And since this great possibility had no form yet, it fit comfortably inside the tiny seed that was home to everything.

 

But growth is inevitable, and soon, the great big possibility realized it was made up of many many tiny possibilities. And each of these possibilities became aware of what they were, of how they were possible, and where they ended—like children learning to walk and talk and wiggle their fingers and interact with the world around them. It wasn’t long before they realized there was an equal possibility for the exact opposite of what they were, and so each possibility split into two, and again, and again, dividing and multiplying endlessly inside this tiny seed until its skin began to ripple and stretch with all the possibilities clamoring inside and bumping their heads against the walls. Unable to hold against the ever-growing possibilities, the seed burst open and the universe we know spilled out, stretching its reach beyond the limits of space we can see. Like attracted like, and many of the possibilities grouped together, forming worlds of their own, sprawling and intricate, while others careened off, drifting through space, still unrealized, waiting to be picked up and given form.

 

This is how the earth was formed--a huddling together of like possibilities fearful of the shattered universe. As time first began to tick, our spinning top of a world fell under a spell of tranquility--fourteen days of extraordinary calm. The ocean’s waves were lazy and the clouds held their tempests. Lions and lambs slept soundly in the same meadows. And during these fourteen days, Kingfisher, a bird with blue feathers, began to sing. Knowing nothing of goodness or shame, or pain or pleasure, or the laws of nature or the pangs of loss, the world was, for fourteen days, whole. This was the earth’s magic hour, a Great Big Peace and Quiet, as it trembled with the anticipation of the unknown. On the fifteenth day, it would begin to splinter and break apart. But for now, it was one."