Everything is Connected
The full moon casts an eerie glow on the campsite. The white light reflects off the brown mountain rocks making them look the color of white lilies. The light casts shadows off of all of us sleeping seeming to illuminate our faces to almost look like spirits. I quietly get out of my sleeping bag and go to the edge of the cliff and sit down. I look out into the quiet night ocean, as the waves from the tides washes up against the rocks below me I remember my mother.
I loved my mother with all I had. She was my guide, my teacher…my best friend. I remember when I was young my mother used to sing me to sleep with a lullaby. It was called Rock-a-bye moon. She would sing it to me until my eyes would start to flutter then she would quietly end the song as I drifted off to sleep. She never knew I knew this but sometimes she would come into my room at night and would stroke my hair and sing softly to me. I loved my mother fiercely and I knew she loved me back. We were always connected I could always tell what she felt and she always knew when to give me a comforting hug. She just always knew.
When she died I had a hole in my heart that couldn't be filled. I always thought about mom her beautiful smile; her queenly walk bespoke royal lineage, when in reality was nothing but her confidence. Recently the hurt has been steadily subsiding, the pain slowly dissipating.
As I sit in the gorgeous moonlight I start to think about Aang and all the things we have been through. I see his progress, his determination his sheer will to try and save the world. Sometimes I swear that he can see right through me and knows exactly what I'm thinking. Some days after his sessions with Toph I catch him looking at me. When I look back his steady gaze never wavers. I feel his eyes, his approving glances, they make me feel beautiful. An eternity I've waited for this, each of us probing trying to see who we each really were. I had to look away, I could feel the timelessness of his eyes, the infinite knowledge but also the infinite tenderness. In that moment I had never felt such a deep connection with anyone since…well my mother. Other days I can tell just by a feeling what Aang needs whether it's a hug or encouragement. We have been connecting on a deeper level recently and I am starting to wonder why I feel so flustered when I see him.
The pale moonlight washes over my face as I look up to the moon and I remember something the guy from the Swamp told us before we left:
"Everything is connected".
I startle myself awake from my stupor and crawl back to my sleeping bag. As I lay their contemplating what that means I remember hearing somewhere that love is energy and energy can be reborn into something new. Can it be that the love I had for my mother is that same love just reborn when I look at Aang? I truly have no idea if I am even right but it certainly is possible. As I turn over I see a flower lying next to my face, it wasn't there before I got up earlier. I pick it up and examine how gorgeous it is, it's my favorite flower, an Ice Lilly. As I look around for where it could have come from I see Aang, sleeping, but with a satisfied smile on his face. A cascade of tears falls from my eyes to the moon covered rocks and I lay back down with the flower clutched against my heart and as I close my eyes I see my mother's hand and she takes mine in hers. I feel her love, her warmth, her acceptance and slowly she places my hand into another one. As I look at the hand it is rough yet smooth it is not a child's hand. I look into his face and I see the same eyes my mother has but they belong to the boy laying not ten feet from me. I guess everything really is connected.