a gift

I unwrapped a gift this year for Christmas - that cut deeply into the chambers of my heart when I opened it. Paper tears flowed, leaving dusty trails. The box was wrapped in brown paper, bound with burgundy ribbon and sealed in bronze colored wax. It was filled with air that had color to it. It was alive with energy that cracked. I carefully opened the lid and it leaped out so aggressively that it knocked me over. It fell to the floor- without a sound  but I felt the crash inside. Puzzled, I felt around beneath the pain that was spilling onto the floor until I found it! A clear purple colored glass yo-yo with cracks on the inside that bent the light in a thousand directions. The waxy silver string was unraveled from once tightly wound. The core was made of gold... solid and warm. I held the elements in my trembling hands and felt the life beat rhythmically from the purple glass. Static energy stung my flesh. I resisted the temptation to retreat from it. I gathered the massive mess of silver and began to wrap it around its' gold...  slowly... firmly... with focused intent. I unraveled knots, some tightly clenched. I smoothed it straight and taut. The wax left a film on my fingers that repelled the slicing, refusing to allow it to cut deeper than it was designed to. Finally, the end of the string arrived and I noticed the loop was missing and that without it the end could be lost be forever, in its' sea of silver. With a flame, I burned the end and watched it melt into a cluster of itself. Then I pressed it, hot and blackened, into the mass of cushion. I smiled at the discovery of what had taken place before my heart and in my hands, and I returned it to its' box. But I left the lid open just in case my new glass purple yo-yo needed to escape again. This time there would be an end to hold onto. And perhaps, with the ability to be grasped, there would be less of a mess when the yo-yo spun.