Chapter two PP 3,4

04/27/2012 Posted by mindsinger

THE GREAT BELL OF FELLOWSHIP

Chapter three PP 4

“Oh, you didn’t oversleep. You’re right on time.  Just follow me.”  With a wave of her hand she walked out the door and into the hall. It really didn’t look much later than when he had been taken to his room, but how did the clothes get dry and how had he slept so well?

“Don’t you remember Queen Gwendolyn telling you that time moves differently here?” Sure enough, around the corner came Stilts, blue robes swirling around his old legs, cane tap tapping on the marble floor.

Zach has been napping after bathing in a marvelous waterfall bath.  He awakens with a start believing he has slept the day away and kept the fallowfolk waiting.  An Alari maiden floats into the room, reassuring him.  The Alari, or angels, are the windfallow equivalent to our angels.  However, they are visible and interact with the fallowfolk.  They are dressed in varicolored leggings and colorful tunics much like the fallowfolk.  The characteristic that sets them apart visually is a pair of wings, with soft brown feathers and barred like those of an owl.

The time flow in windfallow is quite different than on earth.  Since the planet is so near to the eternal plane,  time is of little consequence.  This sets the scene for humor at times, at others it works to their advantage.  For example, while time is passing on earth, time is flying on windfallow.  A few weeks on earth can equal centuries on her sister planet.

Another characteristic of the fallowfolk is their ability to communicate at times with telepathy.  They do not peer deeply into another’s private thoughts, but  surface thought is used to communicate over distance or with the humans.  Their real speech sounds to humans something like wind chimes or bells.  Zach does not realize it at the moment but takes ‘hearing’ their speech as normal.

Stilts is one of the main characters in The Great Bell of Fellowship.  He is an elderly fallowman with a feisty temperament along with much wisdom.  Instead of the common attire of younger fallowfolk, Stilts and other elders wear a longer robe and carry a staff.  He is not a wizard, though dressed like one.

Questions:

1) What do you think a ‘waterfall bath’ would look like?

2)What would it be like to live in a world where thoughts was used to communicate?

3) Do you get the feeling that age is respected on windfallow?  Why?  How is that different here?

4) What would it be like to have angels visible here on earth?  Would they have wings?

Sung Home

04/16/2012 Posted by mindsinger

An Alari, or angel, from Windfallow, after centuries leading and protecting his beloved planet is ‘sung home’.  The end piece of the Chronicles of Windfallow, a double trilogy, soon to be released in print; now on Kindle.

 ~*~

          Angari and his glorious companions rose through the blue-green sky of Windfallow.  As the home he’d known for centuries grew small and remote, the Alari concentrated on the brilliant light toward which they moved.  Brighter than a billion stars, it beckoned them onward.  When they had reached the outermost brilliance, his companions halted.  Golden put his hands on Angari’s shoulders and spoke for all, “My brother, we are now parted for a time.  You go to the Creator as His beloved servant.  We will meet again when all have come home!  Farewell!”

          Angari was alone in the brightness.  He walked now on lush grass surrounded by sights and sounds so pure it made him weep.  Far ahead he saw figures coming to meet him.  Could it be?  Stiltz?  Sparrow?  Zach?  One by one they came to meet him.  Silent, but with smiling faces and outstretched hands, they walked with him.  Others joined them, kings and queens he had known through the centuries, joined in song and the brilliance increased.  It came not from stars but from the multitudes who came to greet him.  And there was more.  He knew the One who waited for him.  Yes.  He was home.

          As Angari moved into his home, a small planet slipped into orbit around the light.  Bathed in swirls of color, she shone with ruby, diamond, emerald, amethyst….

 

IT WASN’T THE CROSS

04/06/2012 Posted by mindsinger

It wasn’t the cross on which He died

that takes our breath away.

He suffered there an agony

that many endure today.

Many have suffered pain and death

for God and His Kingdom here.

So, why should our hearts be filled today

with sadness and with tears?

No.

It wasn’t the cross or the torture he bore

that brings us to our knees.

It was the sin that put Him there;

the price to set us free.

The sinless God who stooped to Earth

to walk on humble paths –

the Mighty King who named the stars,

covered in blood and the spittle of Man;

Almighty God, whose Heavenly Host

strained to hear His call to arms –

held them back with His steadfast Will,

and accepted the cross onCalvary’s Hill.

Drenched in the filth of all the sin

that fallen Man had ushered in,

He laid the purest Rose of Sharon,

spotless before the throne of Heaven.

c. Donna Swanson from Splinters of Light