~~I would like to hear yours :)~~

ps I'll get back to Darth Vex, just been sooo busy lately

~I admit that as I left the dusty path behind me and entered the cool, quiet of the Cave this morning, my thoughts were somewhat scattered. There was Darth Vex, himself somewhere deep inside the Cave these past three days; I wondered what was happening in 'known space' where supposedly the Jedi were reemerging, rebuilding. A different sort of Jedi from my understanding. Would I ever find off-world transport on my backward little planet to visit? This led me to dwell Master Jinn and the ache I still felt at times, even though I could often 'feel' his presence through the Living Force. I knew the Cave entrance like a part of my own being, so often had I come here, but today I found myself stepping across the threshold...and stumbling out onto an extremely rocky path under three blazing suns.

~I caught myself up short. I 'had' to be in the Cave! Taking one more step I now found myself on an ice slicked spot with five frozen paths radiating off from it, snow swirling into my eyes. I staggered backward from a blast of frigid air and found myself now on a barely discernable, muddy track vanishing into a dense jungle; another advance and I'd stepped into a crimson ocean up to my knees! Was this the work of Darth Vex? Had he somehow been able to corrupt the Cave with his powerful will? My intuition whispered 'no'. The quiet spot inside my mind whispered 'stop and be still'. And so I stood, the brine lapping around my legs, some distant shore bird cawing. I relaxed my breathing, softened my vision, quieted my mind, loosened the anxiety-bound cells in my body and simply stood. I took only a moment of this recentering practice before I perceived the landscape shifting, slowly melding into the known interior of the Cave, the lesson learned.

~"Be mindful" I had been counciled often. Awareness is the key. How many paths do you walk at once? How scattered are you? What are they like, day in and day out? Cold and forbidding? Hot and threatening? Mild? Lush? Barren? Soft or hard? Pitch black? Glaringly bright? Shifting so often that you don't know where you are or where you're going? Completely unrecognizable or unfathomable? Are you spinning out of all control with nothing beneath your feet?

~I turned and left the Cave, descending the familiar dusty path to fetch water from a cache below as my reserve was nearly empty. "Attend to what needs doing right in front of you and don't get caught up in every swirling thoughts and anxieties" my master was want to remind me often.

Clarity upon your Path in the Living Force,
Aiki Jorin-ne'