The Village of Me

Hello people of the minuscule world known as my followers. All... One? of you.
   They say it takes a village to raise a child, and they are right. If children are to know the world they need to know the different sides of it. Well what if you are the only resident of your village, with two children in tow? What if everyone else is just a tourist to your town, no one permanent? Nothing stable? How is a child to be brought up well rounded if only the mayor is around to bring them up? But everyone else is on vacation?
   How is one person supposed to sacrifice herself for the good of her kids? Eventually there is nothing left, right? What if there was nothing much there to begin with? Love is in abundance, but patience, will, and ability are in lacking. These children suffer in an ever changing landscape when they need a home. How can I give that to them when I myself am not even home? The world is in chaos, and I'm supposed to be the solitude?
   How can one person protect innocents from pain, when they themselves hurt on a daily basis. How can one person seek out the soul of another, if they cannot leave their town? How can one person complete the job of many, and expect good quality. A factory doesn't expect good parts to be made by one person alone? So how can the world expect one person to raise a child in the same time it takes many? How can I teach lessons that I myself seem to be unable to learn? How do I show them the path when I myself don't know where it is? Where is my village to help me find the way? How do I guide my children to find their village? Where is my compass? Where is my map? How can I find this place if I am trapped in this space?
   I have dreams for the future, but I cannot succeed on my own? Where is that step I need to get where I want to be?
   I guess there would need to be genuine caring for all these questions to be answered? No more wayward souls, but real people, here. Now. Forever. Someone willing to step away from their travels, and to settle in our town, to pick up the slack that so many carelessly dropped. Someone to harmonize in the rhythm of the work to be done. Someone that can advise the mayor, and become so much more than ever was.Someone to bring a balance to the fallen scales. Someone to heal a broken heart, and mend the broken foundation of this town.Someone who can fix the flow, and change the direction of the rivers of time. Someone who can lift the spirits of this town with a simple word, someone who can light the way through the darkness, someone who won't let us thirst.
   It's takes a village to raise a life, a larger one to raise two, yet I'm standing here in the rubble of the town center, cleaning debris with my own two hands, trying to fix what I destroyed. I'll never be mayor of the century. I'll never have awards with my name on them, and I'll go down in history as the worst leader of all time. This village will crumble into the earth, and it's residence will be thrown into the winds of fate with nowhere to go, and all that will be remembered is the failure to do what many should have done. That more could have, and should have, been done.
   The gravestone will be empty, because nothing worth remembering will be lain there, buried and forgotten. Lost, and abandoned. The weeds will grow, and even the marker of SOMETHING being there will be erased. People will move on, making a difference that could not be done here; and no one will be the wiser.

The Damsel and the Knight

once upon a time there was a knight in dented armor. He had been exiled by the court of his kingdom, and lived each day just getting by. One day, at a gathering to feed the poor, he met a damsel. No she was not the fairest of them all. No she was not a princess of any sort. This damsel was just an oridnary woman, barely in her womanhood, who had lost all hope with life. Fates would have them meet at the round table, and as the forced down their meager helpings, a discussion bloomed, and plans to meet in the near future were set. He would later come upon his sandy steed, and whisk her away. As the conversation deepened, she learned this knights recent armor chinks were rather shocking, having been just released from the stockades just months before, and now was under constant surveillance. Scared though the damsel was, his sweet smile, and eyes that held a thousand hurts, enraptured her. The promise of a future glued her. She moved to the kingdom of his forefathers after word of her courtship spread, and she was no longer welcome in the  pauper's home. Life in this new kingdom was far from easy. The woman had still much to learn about life, and the elders knew too much of too little. Tensions grew between the people, but the love between the knight and the damsel, strained though it was, grew with it. They soon wed, and were together at last. Happy. Maybe. The damsel knew, deep down, that a marriage would change things, make things that were already difficult to bear, unmanagable. Whenever tensions grew too high, the damsel would bear the full blame from all sides, including the man she loved. When times grew tough, and the damsel thought to seek help with her kin in the far kingdom to the north, he threatened to take himself from the picture. If a thought crossed her mind, that was not to his favor, he'd belittle her until she bowed to his will. The damsel loved him through it all, citing that the tensions in the home were the cause for his poor treatment, lack of respect, and utter disregard for the woman he claimed to love. In the struggle, they bore a child. The challenge to raise this infant up was great, and it took a toll on the damsel. She knew not of what she was doing, and the strain of sleepless nights, the pain from the birth, and the mental damage caused, had the damsel close to giving up. She pulled through, and managed to keep this beautiful child alive, healthy and happy. Happy though this daughter was, the same could not be said for her parents. The torment caused between all involved was growing too strong, and the woman knew she needed to get out, but was scared of trying to do it alone. Scared of what he would do if she tried. The fear of losing her precious child held her in her place. In the darkness came another ray of light, in the form of another child. The damsel was shocked at her arrival, with the war at home so strong. With the news of new life on the way, the woman thought of what life she wanted for their future. The picture envisioned was not one of a battle-weary family, but one that was happy, and smaller. The woman knew she could not be the mother required as long as she stayed put. She fled, but not without opposition from the man she still loved, even if he hurt her so much. He removed the saddle from her stead, preventing her from riding off, and threatened to have her taken away, but she sought assistance from her distant kin, and was away from him, as he was escorted to the stockades for his tirade. As she coward away from him, lost and alone, she tried to figure out how she was going to raise a family alone. She didn't know the first thing about living alone. Soon the fear of being the sole provider, the only leg to the table her children sat at, and her inability to see she was worth so much more, threw herself at the knight's feet, and begged to work it out, thinking that he would see the fault, and be able to help repair the holes in their love. She was wrong, and she knew it, but being wrong was easier, than being strong. They fell into old patterns, and could not get past the hurt of past transgressions. As time moved on the woman learned to do things on her own, and was even sent to the stockade herself after trying to flee trouble. When no one was there to help her back up, she had had enough. She secured her own home, and managed it on her own. She learned how to establish her own life, and was no longer afraid of the knight's silver tongue that was laced with poison. She pushed him away, and thought she wanted to keep trying, she knew it was no longer worth the heartache and stayed gone. The knights dents continued to grow in number, as he tried to replace her, and drown his sorrows with his own poison. The damsel tried to be civil, but was always roped into his duel of words. The damsel hoped to be freed of her villain when she had met the knight all those years ago, but his dents were too numerous, and hurt too deep, and in the end turned him into the villain she feared. In the end she became her own knight, and hopefully rescued her children from a similar fate.