Feet firmly placed on the floor, hands gently resting on the thighs, eyes closed and away...
As my breathing deepened I sensed movement below my feet. Glancing down, I could see I was standing on a vast body of shimmering water. It was both calming and soothing as it gently lapped up around my ankles.
Words echoed into my mind—"water, In the beginning"—and I was captured by a sense that elemental water was showing me the very beginning of something special. Almost as if I'd reached the very beginning of time itself.
looking out from that stance off into the distance, steam began to rise from the water. Lifting from the surface, it curled up to the skyline like tendrils reaching from the shadowy depths.
I watched the steam dancing before me and was struck by the beauty of its formation. Again, words came to me—"air, in the beginning"—and I began to realise that I was witnessing the interplay between these two elemental properties.
A rumbling sound broke the silence of the moment, and I could feel the water beneath me begin to wave slightly. From the space where the steam escaped the water, I could make out molten redness bubbling upwards. There was a hissing sound as it met the air.
As I watched curiously, words came once more, "fire, in the beginning." As the words filled my mind I felt the heat from the rolling mass as it made its way upwards. Lava spreading out from a central place, bubbling upwards, growing larger as it combined with water and air in beautiful communion.
As the lava reached the surface and continued to build, its interaction with the air caused it to cool and solidify. It began as a darkened mass lifting from the water which became lighter as it took on the shape of a mountain—"earth, in the beginning"—echoed through my mind.
I couldn't take my eyes away from the mountain. The majesty of its transformation from dark to light took on a familiar form as green began to sprout from its base, complementing the hardened rock toward its summit. Small flashes of light appeared in the green as flowers began to take shape and come into view—"life, in the beginning."
My mind tried to make sense of the sequence of events as they had occurred. Was this the order of the elements, Water, air, fire, earth? As soon as my mind began questioning the answer fell away from me.
I knew earth must have been present below the water even though I couldn't see it initially. I knew fire must have been heating the earth to make the molten lava way before I saw air as the steam from the combined process.
My mind flitted back and forth over the elements trying to grasp what order they must have appeared for me to see the majestic mountainous form before me. Then, as I was getting lost in the endless cycle of thought, my mind silenced. I realised it didn't matter the order, it didn't matter that I couldn't grasp the process. What mattered was that I was part of this wondrous beauty and that was enough.