Every day Gloria woke up and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, taking notice of anything new that might have occurred while she slept, or at least she would try to sleep.  She took notice of the new feathers in her wings, and the ones that had fallen to the floor, and the lovely dances of the crows as they fluttered their wings against the edges of her eyes.  Every day Gloria awoke with a new sense of the day, new goals in her world, new things to work at achieving. Every day Gloria fell down, skinned her knees, tried to fly, stumbled and jogged through the world, kicking over the earth as she did, leaving small swirls of dust behind her.

Today Gloria woke up, going directly for the coffee cup, instead of the mirror. This wasn’t the kind of morning Gloria wanted to take notice of. Every detail would show, every cross would be turned, every line would be burned and etched into her surface and the blackbirds wouldn’t even notice, their wings would be distant, their sound would be haunting.  Etched across the hardwood floor there would be words in the grain of the wood, stained under her bare feet, deeply cut into the wood of what once, was a tree, what once grew in the earth, the way nothing else could, tall and steady, no matter how hard the wind blew.  Gloria’s wings were ruffled and messed, some were missing, the light had burned all hopes of ever getting close to it. The brilliance attracted her like white fluffy moths to a flame, only to find out, the light that lit the darkness was the same one that burned the ability to have the full freedom of flight…falling hard to the dirt on the floor…she had more strength than that, more strength then to give up and lie hopeless. She would just have to walk. It would just take longer….that’s all.  She sipped her coffee and watched the rain fall against the thin window pane, the noise was mesmerizing to her spirit and she fell into a featherless whirlwind.

From now on, this would not be how things would become. From now on, this would be an allowed sickness, only to invade when she had the time to welcome it, and often she did not.  From now on, this isn’t what would take her, but instead what would make her stronger. Gloria had no time to sit and wait for someone to pull her feathers, or hand her a replacement, she could do that herself. Gloria had no time to wait for others to pick up her missing pieces when they fell to the floor, for she could do it so much quicker…if she just put one foot in front of the other, eventually she would jump and eventually she wouldn’t come back down….