A Cool Gentle Breeze

The box glowed a deep pink color.  Almost an electric mauve, if you will.  “Am I having a stroke?” I thought to myself.  As a 90s kid, I couldn’t help but remember that scene from the movie Phenomenon where the main character appears to be hit by some outer space meteor and gains supernatural powers.  Later in the movie, he finds out he is dying of brain cancer and that the fateful night was no meteor or falling star but an ocular phenomenon that he experienced in his brain from a tumor. But I digress. 

I gathered myself, shrugged my shoulders, and headed outside to the back patio.  “Good, I can still walk,” I said to myself.  Once outside, I could hear a steady, pulsating sound, much like an old attic fan reverberating through a house.  As I made my way around the swimming pool toward the glowing box, a cool, gentle breeze touched my face.  “Guess I’m on the right track by moving towards this thing,” I thought.  You see, over the last few years, especially when I was at my lowest or most frustrated, I noticed that if I were outside, I’d feel this same cool, gentle breeze.  It immediately calmed my spirit and brought my thoughts to God.  I assumed it was Him letting me know He was with me.  Despite my jaded attitude, I held onto this, and in that moment by the swimming pool, I was able to step outside my pain to recognize and remember it.  

The closer I got to the glowing box, the more I felt this strange, radiant heat.  It felt like being on a warm Caribbean beach (minus the white sand, turquoise water, and palm trees of course).  It beckoned me closer and closer. The warmth felt so good on my tired bones the closer and closer I stepped until finally I was face to face with this strange apparition.  It was smaller than I thought, only slightly bigger than my head.  It stood directly at eye level.  I found myself mesmerized by its pulsating glow and warmth, especially at this close distance.  The sound, the deep electric humming, began to drown out everything else.  For some unknown reason, I placed my hand on its surface.  As I did, the glow grew brighter.  Then suddenly, my hand slipped inside, like it was going through some sort of window.  Surprised, but not frightened (oddly enough), I pulled my hand out and inspected it.  “Hmm,” I thought.  Everything looked normal.  I stuck my hand in again.  As I did, the box expanded, getting brighter and bigger, as it took on the shape of an open door.  I took a step back and looked around.  I was still alone, not so much as a bird hopping on the ground nearby.  Thinking I was probably dreaming, I decided, “Eh, what the heck,” and took a giant step forward into this strange doorway that stood before me.  All at once, the glow, the humming, and the delightful heat disappeared. In front of me was a winding path, surrounded by miles of valleys, forests, and mountains in the distance.  I was no longer in my parents’ backyard.  “What the?!” Panicked, I turned around only to see that the open doorway was gone.

In desperation, I reached, and grabbed, even attempted to draw an outline of the doorway with my fingertips in the air.  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing. Back and forth, I walked and ran along the tree line nearby to see if by some chance my movement would open the strange portal again.  Then it hit me—portal—I stepped through a portal!  But to where?  My mind began to race and spiral and race and SPIRAL!!! And then as if on cue, a cool, gentle breeze…