[Black-and-white drawings of carnations]

Gary Field
DC #M05398
Century C2
Comsry, FL 32535
E1-103
betweenthebars.org

8/1/12

Just a Phase

"Now what the heck is that supposed to mean?"
It was lights out on the cell block, but my cellie was once again trying to get a quick answer to an age-old question.
"Why you always gotta talk with preambles?"
"You mean parables."
"Whatever."
"I'm trying to paint a picture for you—with words."
"Paint a picture, eh?" He said, "You must be paintin' one a them Picassos—because you don't make no sense."
"What I'm trying to tell you," I said, "is that this sentence—this little three-year bid that you have to do is just a phase, man. Just a bit a darkness that you have to go through. But you have to keep moving towards the light. Don't let the darkness swallow you up. If you let this time feed the seeds of bitterness, then that's the fruit you'll carry through those gates with you when you leave here."
"And what's that got to do with flowers in the sky?"

I had to smile. If someone overheard this conversation, we wouldn't sounded like two peas in a pod. More like two nuts in a shell. :D What I had said was: "Cast into darkness, yet not dismayed, soon the flower's beauty would be displayed."

I was trying to use the analogy of a flower having to go through a period of darkness and make its way through some "dirt" before reaching for its corner of the sky.

"Let me ask you a question," I said. "Have you ever seen a beautiful flower before it's been plucked? While it was still in the ground?"
"Of course," he said.
"Well, did you see my dirt or um... er, fertilizer on its petals?"
"No, I didn't. Your point?"
"My point is that it did have to go through that dirt and darkness before it could reach for the sky. When your sentence ends, you don't have to carry the bitterness that prison can produce with you when you walk through those gates. Don't let this temporary darkness poison your spirit, bro. Reach out, in faith, for the light. Use this time as a period of personal growth, and plant seeds of hope in your mind. You have the power to decide which fruit you will bear when you follow that light to freedom."
"Wow! That was more Rembrandt. Deep, Doe, deep."

I smiled in the darkness and said, "Once a train of thought has left the station, its cargo can move the minds of men."
"Now what the heck is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh boy!" I sighed. LOL :D

With the grace that we've been granted, let us bloom where we are planted.

Gary Field
Betweenthebars.org