When I was a boy, I didn’t much appreciate the company of other children. We could play and have fun, but I never quite fit in with the others. When I grew tired of them, I would go off on my own to play in the forest. Chasing creatures, listening to the bird song and the leaves shaking all around me, I felt both joy and peace. The thick scent of the wood and the damp air were always so comforting to me. In the shade of the canopy, I felt as if I was not alone.
Other children spoke of the haunted woods and the elders told tales of rare plants and animals who could not be hunted or trapped. The presence I felt was not that of A beast or foul spirit, but that of a strong, vibrant warmth. I felt secure and sure that no harm would come to me. I did not often feel the presence, but when I did, it would linger. At different places in the wood and at different times, I would feel the presence and I began to call out to it. I felt as though it answered me.
As I grew older, I continued to spend time in the wood and address the presence I felt there. I also began to take more care as I walked under the canopy. I felt welcomed and sought to return the hospitality shown to me by being respectful to the life teeming there. Eventually, I stopped visiting the wood as I had. I took up obligations that kept me away but I always remembered how all the lives in the forest were woven together with the generosity of the trees and the warmth of the presence.
-Servant, remembering the Presence
“Pinnacle” is the working title for a Fantasy novel by Matthew Munoz. The speaker in this passage, “the Servant” is a grieving man who is attached to the principal characters in the story.
MJ Muñoz 