Revised Sophie's Journey

Sophie goes with her husband and a group of friends on a trek in the high Andes Mountains of Peru. There, amidst the ruins of an ancient Inca temple, she receives the rites of the munay-ki from an ancient shaman. He is wearing a magnificent multi-colored, hand-woven cone shaped hat and matching poncho. Against her heart he presses a collection of stones, wrapped in a colorful hand-woven wool cloth. Energy from the stones shoots into her body. And he tells her about the rainbow, that it represents a bridge into the invisible world, a world with which most Westerners lost contact long ago. As her day continues she is extra happy, energized with a new spring in her step.

That night she goes into a public bathroom at the lodge where she is staying. It’s a smallish bathroom with two or three stalls and she enters one of the stalls and sits on the toilet. More people, including her friends who are there with her, start coming in and going into the other stalls and she notices for them to all be going into stalls, there must be more than three now. As her awareness of this grows, the bathroom grows and there are more stalls, and they are enlarging and the dividers between the stalls are dissolving. And the toilets begin morphing into bathtubs and they’re filling up with waste and the room keeps growing to the size of an indoor gym, filled with classmates. All, including Sophie are soon swimming in over-sized bathtubs, that keep growing in size, until finally they’re the size of small swimming pools overflowing with filthy water, each containing a swimmer. Sophie awakes from this dream with an uneasy feeling.

The next week, on a Saturday, she goes into her backyard to do some gardening and finds an injured owl in the bushes. It is stunning! She sees the incredible detail of the claws as it gently hops up and perches itself on her hand, of every feather, the beak, the ears, the yellow eyes. Their eyes lock on each other. She stares at it. It stares back. Sophie and the owl stare at each other for a very long time. She is in awe of it. It is so majestic and pure. Next the owl slowly turns it's head 180 degrees so it is looking directly behind its own back. It does this several times, as if it is demonstrating this special ability to her. Then it rotates its head back to face her again. She takes it into her kitchen, perches it on the back of a wood chair at the table and puts some leftover steak in front of it. As the owl eats, she gets online to find out more about owls. She reads about their special ability to see in the dark and behind their backs. She also reads that owls symbolize wisdom.

In weeks that that follow, Sophie's world starts falling apart...

First, at work she discovers that her assistant has behind her back been plotting to get her fired in order to take over her job. When she confronts this person, over the next few days, a series of mishaps causes management to fire Sophie in the middle of the day. On her way home, as she is driving she notices her husband's car in a local motel parking lot. That night she confronts him about why it was there and he is surprised, explaining his supervisor had borrowed his car. A few days later, when she goes to transfer money from their joint life savings account, so she can pay the next month's bills without her usual income, she discovers the account is empty. She calls her husband and he doesn't answer his phone. That night he doesn't come home either.

About a month after her return from the Andes, Sophie has experienced devastation on every level. She is jobless, husbandless, and on the verge of financial insolvency. 

To avoid losing her house, she quickly places an ad in the local paper to rent it out. It is August however and weeks pass before she gets a single inquiry. Finally a middle-Eastern family comes to look at the house. They love it and Sophie is greatly relieved. Then to her surprise they offer to buy it for cash immediately. With her savings and checking accounts nearly empty and no income, Sophie must accept their offer.

Within a week, Sophie has enough money to support a modest retirement and she and her owl (to which she has become very attached) are living in a cabin at a small resort in the local woods. She is stunned as she ponders how to rebuild her life.

Soon, just as coincidentally as her world fell apart, another series of magical coincidences will help her create a much more meaningful and authentic life.

 Copyright 2009 Kerri Colegrove