A Journey of Souls

by Michael McKinney

  “Behold Calvin, a celestial titan. This world has saved your home planet many times. Thousands of comets, and asteroids that would've crashed into Earth have been pulled away by this enormous cosmic protector, the planet Jupiter. Earth would never have spawned vertebrate life without the protection of this colossal orb.”

  With his dog Max still lying patiently only a few feet away, Calvin looks in deferential silence at the world he could only imagine as a young amateur astronomer. He hears Brianna’s voice again.

  “Look Calvin we're coming up on Europa, one of Jupiter's four large moons. Let's have a closer look.”

  An instant later they're gently sailing over the frozen ice fields of Europa's frigid surface. The singular, and utter strangeness of the alien world he sees is spellbinding. With the gigantic image of Jupiter's roiling surface serving as a colossal backdrop, Calvin looks on a frozen wasteland illuminated in the ghostly twilight of this distant world. Unending expanses of ice that extend in every direction appear to go on for countless miles, interrupted only by deep crevasses that seem to have no starting or end point. Flying over the surface of this Jovian moon, Calvin observes a terrain that no human eyes have ever seen. This cold, forbidding, ice covered world was never more than a small white dot orbiting Jupiter when he observed it as a boy through his telescope in Pennsylvania, but it seems Pennsylvania is now 700 million miles away. Calvin is beside himself with amazement when he hears Brianna speak.

  “You can guess what's beneath all this ice Calvin.”

  “Yes, an ocean of water.”

  “An ocean of water, that's also an ocean of life. Humans will eventually explore the subsurface ocean of Europa, and catalog it's many life forms, but for us, that's another time, and another journey. Let's continue.”

  As Calvin hears these words, he tries to comprehend what he's experiencing. ‘How can this be real?’ he wonders. Is it possible that his consciousness is really traveling through the solar system? Calvin remembers often telling his friends that when he dies he'd like a private tour of those cosmic wonders he observed with his telescope so many times in his life. That wish has now apparently been granted, and granted spectacularly. Calvin looks down and sees his dog Max lying quietly a few feet away just as he had so many years ago when he was a boy. He then looks back toward earth. He sees the sun and marvels at being able to look directly into its shrunken circumference. Its markedly diminished brightness and smaller size presents a pale comparison to the blinding intensity of a hot Pennsylvania sun in July, but evidently that was a very different time and a very different place. He's enthralled by the incredible view and as he watches the sun grow dimmer, he simultaneously senses a source of light coming from somewhere in the sky behind him, and then hears Brianna's friendly voice.

  “Would you like to see something interesting Calvin?”

  Calvin turns to look behind him and is promptly astounded by what he sees. The enormous, point-blank image of the planet Saturn presents itself in stunningly dramatic fashion. The sudden and unexpected sight of this gigantic planet of swirling gas encircled by the majestic splendor of its elaborate system of rings leaves him in startled amazement.

  “I don't think you've ever seen Saturn like this through your telescope,” Brianna says.

  “We won't stop, but since we're in the neighborhood, I thought you'd like to have a look. What do you think Calvin?”

  “It's, ... it's beyond thinking. ... I'm speechless.”

  As they get closer, the rings resolve into a countless multitude of individual chunks of water ice stretching out endlessly before them. The endless movement of their slow shifting tumble has an almost hypnotic attraction for Calvin as he silently takes in the remarkable view. When they quickly pass through the rings, he's surprised to see how thin they are relative to their enormous width. Stunned by the visual impact of seeing Saturn at close range and its magnificent ring system, Calvin is beside himself in silent wonder. Again, he hears Brianna.

  “One more destination Calvin, and certainly the most dramatic.”

  “What's that?”

  “It's out there,” Brianna says, pointing to the stars.

  As they quickly pull away from Saturn and its rings, Calvin sees the sun shrink in brightness and become just another star among the millions that comprise the Milky Way galaxy. He sees a richly populated band of distant stars that completely encircle him. Stars are everywhere. The panoramic view of the galactic plane that surrounds him is overwhelming in its visual grandeur.

  “Look Calvin,” Brianna says as she points to one side.“The center of the galaxy.”

  Turning to look, Calvin sees the added concentration of stars and what looks to be enormous clouds of dust occupying the central hub of the Milky Way. No view or photograph taken through any telescope could ever rival the spectacular sight Calvin is now taking in with his unaided eyesight. The irresistible sense of miraculously rapid interstellar travel is persuasively confirmed as individual stars swiftly pass by.

  Then, with unexpected suddenness, their destination looms gigantically in front of them. The giant star forming Orion nebula seems to swallow the entire sky as Calvin finds himself entering its tremendously vast interior, a stellar nursery so large that hundreds of solar systems have been born here. He sees four dazzling stars in the distance, and hears Brianna's voice as they quickly close in on them.

  “Look Calvin, the Trapezium cluster, new stars and planetary worlds, new platforms for life and consciousness.”

  In shocked silence Calvin sees a sky vaulted with rich hues of red, blue, orange, and green blended together in countless variations. Wispy, billowing swirls of thick cloud like vapor streak the entire sky with intense colors in every direction. A gaseous shell of stupendous dimensions illuminated from within by the brilliant hot new stars of the Trapezium cluster seem to exist in this moment for Calvin Milner only. This is the Orion nebula. The staggering scale of its immensity leaves him in stupefied amazement.

  “What do you think Calvin?”

  “I, ... I can't think at all, at the moment. It's, It's almost too much. ... How can I be standing here with you and Max seeing this? My heart is beating. I'm breathing air, but there is no air here. How can this be happening? If I'm dead why do I still have a body?”

  “It happens this way for everyone. It's reassuring and makes the journey more familiar for those in transit.”

  “In transit to where? Why is all this happening?”

  “In transit to their next incarnation; human bodies physically expire, but the soul moves continually onward. Passing through the mirage of death, its journey is endless.”

  “How does it find its direction?”

  “It's guided by and from the daily habit of our own lives. That's the paradox of it Calvin.”

  “I still don't understand. Can you explain it for me?”

  “Mundane things like the words we use each day, how we look at a stranger, what we say to a request for help, may seem insignificant at the time, but over time these seemingly small things trace out a cameo profile of our soul's image to God, and infallibly reveal who and what we are. That's what determines our destiny. As the ephemeral and the eternal are woven from the same reality, each person weaves out of their own life the inescapable consequent reality of their afterlife. Our inclination becomes our destiny.

  Calvin's mind and senses are reeling. What he's experiencing is beyond reason or human understanding. In silence, he looks skyward again at the over-arching canopy of cosmic wonder surrounding him and hears Brianna's voice.

  “It's quite a sight isn't it?”

  “I'm overwhelmed. This place is- it's almost forbidding in a strange way. It makes me appreciate the good, green, earth even more; if you know what I mean.”

  “I do Calvin. Long journeys make home a welcome sight. It's time for you to get back. Your parents would like to spend some time with you.”
>
  “How is that possible? My parents died years ago.”

  “There is no death Calvin, only life, and its relentless continuance. We have no choice in this mystery but to go onward.”

  “Why am I here?” Calvin asks.

  “For the same reason. The choices you made throughout your life have brought you here. In your case, you made a commitment long ago to serve. Life is calling us to something beyond ourselves and you answered that call. Do you remember what happened to you when you were seventeen?”

  “You mean the car accident.”

  “Yes,”

  “I could never forget it.”

  “It changed your life; didn't it?”

  “Yes, very much.”

  “What nearly killed you became the catalyst that spurred you to a life of service.”

  “Yes, but, what an ordeal.”

  “It takes the furnace and the anvil to make a sword.”

  “It was a horrible experience. I was trapped in that car for two hours. I was the only one alive. I begged God to let me live. That's the last thing I remembered until I woke up in the hospital three days later.”

  “I know. I was at your bedside.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was one of the nurses that took care of you as you recovered.”

  “How can that be?”

  “It's part of my work. I've been in and out of your world many times through the centuries Calvin, as you will be.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I'm just a servant, the same as you.”

  “How can you be just like me if you can do all this?”

  “I'm not causing all this to happen. This is the product of a supremely transcendent universal energy, an energy that's lucid enough to know the thoughts and actions of all of us and powerful enough to grant what each of us desire most. That's the good news, and the bad news Calvin. It's the same news. We can't escape what we've freely chosen to become.”

  “I'm glad we got to spend this time together Calvin.”

  “So am I. Thank you.”

  “Your parents would like to see you. We have to get back, but before we do, I want to show you something.”

  Extending her arm and looking skyward, Calvin is reminded of the colossal magnitude of his surroundings. As he takes it in, he hears Brianna's voice.

  “Look Calvin, you have a privileged view of the majestic expanse of creation. What you'll see now is the dramatic intensity of its generative power.”

  “I think I can guess what that is.”

  “I'm sure you can. We're inside the Orion nebula and we know what happens here.”

  “Stars are born.”

  “That's right. This is a stellar nursery, and I think were right on time to see a new arrival.”

  Suddenly Calvin Milner and company pull away from the illuminating light of the bright Trapezium star cluster and rapidly travel to a dark obscure region of the giant nebula where Calvin sees a source of light that looks unusual. As he gets closer he observes a huge flattened disk of dark dusty material. In its center, a gigantic ball of super heated gas is spiraling in on itself. Its distinctly orange glow indicates high temperature and high density. Calvin knows what he's seeing as he hears Brianna's voice.

  “Do you know what it is Calvin?”

  “Yes, it's a protostar.”

  “We're about to witness the seminal power of primal creation. Let's have a closer look.”

  Pulling in closer, Calvin anticipates the momentous event he senses is imminent. Brianna speaks again.

  “We're now about ninety-million miles away, roughly the same distance of earth to the sun. This flattened disc of swirling gas has been spinning in on itself for ten million years, getting hotter and hotter. The temperature is now over twenty-seven million degrees, hot enough for something to happen Calvin.”

  “Nuclear fusion.”

  “That's right.” After a pause, Brianna says,“It's almost time. ... Behold Calvin, a star is born.”

  With no prior sign or indication, Calvin sees the nebulous mass instantly turn from a dusty orange to a white hot sphere of brilliant light, its brightness increasing by many orders of magnitude. The threshold moment when nuclear fusion begins has been reached. A titanic high speed blast wave of unimaginable force rushing outward in all directions begins to rapidly push away the enormous ring of gas and dust encircling the new star. The scale of explosive energy released from this event is beyond the descriptive power of human language to convey. As the blast wave expands outward, it reveals a number of much smaller rocky objects of varying size.

  “Look Calvin, building blocks for future planets, no human eyes will ever see what you have just witnessed.”

  Calvin is at once bewildered, mystified, and enthralled by what he's seeing. Groping for words he simply says,

  “This is astounding. ... I'm overwhelmed.”

  “All that you've seen Calvin, astonishing as it is, has been created by a force that originates, contains, and governs all existent reality.”

  Calvin Milner's sense and understanding of that reality is suspended as his mind reels in baffling disbelief at what he's experiencing. A muted, almost incoherent stupefaction comes over him leaving him in stunned silence. Sensing his confusion, Brianna speaks.

  “You've seen a lot Calvin. It's time to get back. Your parents want to see you.”

  As suddenly as they came the trio pull away and soon the image of the huge Orion nebula, over forty light years wide shrinks into the retreating distance. Calvin once again sees stars passing by at an impossible speed, and in only a moment one particular star quickly gets brighter. As they get closer, the reassuring sight of earth comes into view and within seconds Calvin finds himself once again in the backyard of his boyhood home, the starting point for his incredible odyssey. It looks and feels as if he never left. Max, still lying faithfully on the ground a few feet away is calm and relaxed as if all was normal. Calvin looks up near zenith to see the moon in its first quarter, and has trouble believing that an hour ago he flew just above its mountain tops. Perplexed, and silent he hears Brianna's voice break the spell of his distracted thoughts.

  “I hope you enjoyed the tour Calvin.”

  “Wow, ... I'm stunned. I don't know what to say, ... and now you say I'm going to see my parents,” Calvin says as he sees the lights shimmering in the home where he grew up.

  “I have to leave you now. I really enjoyed this time with you Calvin,” replies Brianna.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I have to meet someone. I'll be back in a while. When I see you again I'll show you what you'll be doing here as a new apprentice but for now, goodbye.”

  Calvin looks at the house he grew up in as a boy and has difficulty comprehending the thought that his parents are inside, and in only moments he'll be with them again. Seeing the kitchen light on with the window shutter closed exactly as he remembers it, triggers memories of when he was a boy using his telescope at night and how his mother would never forget to close the shutter to keep the outside area as dark as possible for his stargazing. Calvin Milner asks himself again if this is really happening. He has just been given a private tour of the moon and planets; gone beyond the solar system through deep space; witnessed the unbelievable power of star birth hundreds of light years away, and after all that serenely returned to his boyhood home for an unexpected reunion with parents. How can all of this be happening? He looks back at Brianna and sees only his dog Max sitting looking back at him in steadfast loyalty.

  Then the scene around Calvin abruptly changes, and before he can remember entering his boyhood home, he finds himself seated in his mother's kitchen as she washes dishes a few feet away. Her relaxed and casual demeanor is as reassuringly familiar as when he was a growing boy. Flooded with deep feelings of love and belonging, Calvin surrenders himself
to the blissful contentment he's experiencing and without feeling the need to ask or answer any questions, he sits watching his mother as he had so many times before as a child. As Calvin's mother turns to face him, he sees a face that has lovingly nurtured him for so many years. Her radiant smile seems to personify all human benevolence. Calvin intuitively senses that this is not the time or place for questions. The absolute love and complete acceptance he feels somehow goes beyond the need for spoken words. Blissfully silent, he hears the soft sweet voice of his mother.

  “Looks like a good night for star gazing. Did you see anything interesting?

  Chapter Two: The Uncaring Father

  In a suburb of Chicago, a man sits alone in his living room. His name is Shane Keller and today is the first day of a two-week vacation he's been happily anticipating. He sits, relaxed and comfortable in his easy chair waiting for a cable TV technician to arrive and restore service that's been interrupted. Though Shane Keller has been looking forward to this vacation for some time, he has no plans to do anything but stay home and enjoy his leisurely respite. Shane Keller is married, and the father of an only child. Through his daughter Linda he has two grandchildren, but because he and his daughter have been estranged for nearly two years, he has no contact with them. Making no effort to begin healing the sorely strained relations with his daughter, Mr Keller has convinced himself that it's not his responsibility to initiate the process of reconciliation. Shane Keller is a man who has difficulty admitting he could be wrong about certain things.

  His daughter Linda hasn't called or visited her parents’ home since this family feud reached its boiling point almost two years ago when Linda's youngest son was hospitalized with leukemia. The life threatening illness nearly killed Shane Keller's grandson and his struggle with the disease required a lengthy stay in the hospital, but for some reason Mr Keller never took the time to visit the boy even though it was a mere twenty-minute drive away. In Shane Keller's mind his self-excused reasoning always seemed plausible; he was too tired after work; there was an important ball game on TV he wanted to watch, or something around the house needed to be done. After repeated requests by his daughter Linda to visit his grandson, it eventually became clear to her that her father was simply not interested. With remission of her son's disease and the return of his health came something else; an adamant refusal on Linda's part to forgive her father for what she regards as callous treatment of her son and her family. Most damning of all from her point of view is the fact that after her son returned home from his medical ordeal, not a single phone call from his grandfather was made to inquire about his health. For these reasons Linda's feelings are bitter and intractable. Her enmity, however implacable to her father does not extend to her mother, who does her best while being in the middle of this simmering stand-off.