Very Zen

The fat grey moth appeared to have given up, having succumbed to the sticky tangle that had entrapped him.

Puck gently blew on the failing creature, and in that one breath the bondage dissolved and the creature flew free.

Out in the rocky outcrops of Utah a lone climber was wedged in between two rock walls that earlier he thought he could crawl through. His body had swollen in the heat of the struggle, and now the adventurer was literally stuck between a rock and a hard place, opposing his efforts to move forward or back.

He could not reach his phone, or flick the ants from his nose. The heat of the stone was burning his bare shoulders, and his fears were strangling the very breath out from him. He closed his eyes momentarily to find respite from the panic, when a warm sweet wind passed over him from behind. He opened his eyes to find that the wall beside him was breaking up into sand, and with all the effort he could gather, he wriggled free. The young explorer dropped safely and softly onto the dirt beneath.

Back in his one-windowed room, Puck picked up his satchel to leave, and then stopped to clairvoyantly enjoy the exhilaration of the climber as he ran towards the entrance to the national park.

“How very Zen” he said jokingly to the ghost of Master Shen, who saw also the remote event watching through his friend’s eyes.

With the hint of a smile, he every slightly nodded a bow to Puck on his way out. The old ghost touched his shoulder affectionately and whispered, “Two-fer”.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses: Azlander Series

Master Shen Yun

Puck enjoyed his stay-overs with the Buddhist brotherhood. He had a special room set apart from the main quarters, from where he could come and go undisturbed and largely unseen.

Master Shen Yun, a century before, had offered him this arrangement, and in kind, Puck would bring the community a variety of seeds that did them well. Over a hundred years later he was still delivering farming supplies to his favourite retreat.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses: Azlander Series

Buddhist Monastery

He folded his silken robe lovingly, and placed it on the top of the two camel hair blankets resting on his woven bamboo sleeping mat.

Puffs of humid rain were misting into the little square window of his room. An elderly moth rested awkwardly on its ledge - his furry feet were caught in the remnants of an obstinate web.

The low moans of the morning’s chant could be heard from all around, although as though, from one voice alone. This deep song found its way into the gardens, the wash house, and the temple; punctuated with the rhythmic swish of the switch calling to action the will of the spirit in all quarters of the Monastery.

Duty thrummed throughout the community’s heart; motivating the aching hand, thrashing the strained and tired back - consoling fervently the ever reaching mind … seeking out the peace of the Heavens.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Emissaries of the Angelic Order

Sydney Sime

There are some dark places on the Earth where the presiding Angels have withdrawn - for they are sensitive to evil, and have no will of their own to defeat it - and so they simply must leave.

Yet the innocent and the afflicted are never without their helping presence - sustaining them with radiant love and guidance, ever within for those who are always without.

Secondarily there are emissaries of the Angelic order who do the work as is necessary … helping in varying forms and race.

Needles aka Einstein, had been one of those beings, who was commissioned to a mortal known by that same name. In fidelity to his spiritual ‘brother’ he had taken his name also.

Needles the human, had suffered a ruptured aneurysm at the age of just twenty-eight. His last shot had caused his kidneys to overload and his brain to seize - placing him now in a retirement home with an absent mind, listening to waltzes and the intermittent screams of the fellow residents about him.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Angel is, as an Angel does.

Hans Thoma 

Angels are embodied in many forms. One could say: that an Angel is, as an Angel does.

Were it not for the body of Angels, manifestation would not be possible.

Their living body consists of co-operative spirit - cohesive interplay - one that coerces magnificently an otherwise fractured system.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Bewitching Herb

“Yes, yes, he met with the girl right here”, he said pointing to the corner seats - “he would dip his spoon into her soup, and she seemed largely aggreived by it.

“It is possible”, he added under his breath, that this fancy Pelt Lord had added some bewitching herb - I say this to you because the maiden was drowsy when it came to her finding her feet to walk out of here. He had to hold her upright … we had just thought her tipsy with spirits - but in looking back, there was no whore’s demeanour about the child to begin with.

“Find that carriage I say,” he nodded knowingly, “and you will find her.”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Abductor

It was a fine sight to see the two companions walking together: with the size and height of Tindle beside Jonathon, who was all four heads shorter than his gentle friend. Jonathon was not a small man, it was just that Tindle was an oversized Welshman.

Their mirth was marred only with their concern for Fatima - who they had since learned had been taken away by a carriage that wore emblems of an eagle atop a winged silver serpent.

The townspeople who had seen Fatima leave were impressed with the rarity of the coach itself, as it was upholstered, on the outside, entirely in bear pelt.

“What can I tell you?” the proprietor of the broth cafe off-handedly asked … he continued: “The Eu-rope-eans take pleasure in a very different style.”

He grimaced thinking back to its famed passenger, who wore the same fur also as a cape.

The abductor was toothless, but for two canines that protruded when he spoke.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series