The Life Giver She was a life-giver, rare among her kind.

She was coming of age and her need t o give birth to life was growing. She sought the elders to ask permission, as wa s the custom. Appearing alone before the council of the ancient wise ones, she spoke eloquentl y of her longing. They would resist. She feared they would deny her. She was afraid. Still she persevered. She reminded the elders that she was a life-give r, and this was her destiny and birth- right. To deny her, she pleaded, was to c ondemn her to unbearable sorrow and emptiness. The elders listened intently, trying to hide their sorrow. Once there had been many life-givers, now there were so few. She was special, the oldest and the you ngest of their kind, free, graceful, and beautiful to behold. She was perhaps t he loveliest they had ever seen, one with the greatest potential for creating li fe. She brought such joy. They did not wish to loose her, or for her time with them to end. They warned her, as was required, of the pain and difficulties in giving life. T he risks are endless, the wise ones explained, Sometimes resulting in failure. If she was able to give life, her children would not necessarily love her, or respe ct her sacrifice. The life she gave birth to would ignore her needs and, perhap s, reject her and her gift. It had happened before. She would be lonely, far f rom her kind, isolated and cast adrift in a cold and uncaring place. Life-givin g often ended in a painful and agonized death. All this they told her. Still she pleaded. She was a life-giver. Who could deny her? Not even the eld est and wisest. Her petition was granted. Even the strangeness of isolation and long period of birthing and nurturing life did not dampen her desire or weaken her will. At last her time was at hand. All came to participate in the sending circle, to seed her with their bodies, wisdom, gifts and energies. They came to start the ancient ritual dance that would begin the changing. Slowly, in the center of t heir unending spirals of dazzling color and light, she danced. Then, faster and faster she spun, climbing higher and higher through the brilliant maze circles, and as she sped, gathering momentum and speed, she flew from their arms. She felt her flowing, graceful and liquid body, grow solid and thicken, crumplin g into a brilliant ball of burning flame and hungry heat. They had given her all that she needed to bring life. Now they watched from afar as she sped toward he r destination in a far-away galaxy, waiting in wonder and dread as she flamed re d, yellow, white, hurling heat and light across the black onyx skies of the univ erse. As her ethereal body of light coalesced and hardened into dense matter, trapping her in a solid form, they watched. For those who lived as stardust, it was the ultimate prison and sacrifice. They stood the long vigil until the final transmutation. Locked into place by gravity and inertia, a new planet, a brilliant blue and green sphere, a life-giv er named Gaia, took form, gracefully orbiting around a bright yellow sun. At la st, her people turned away, whispering farewells, hoping that her children would love and cherish her as much as they had. It began as whisper. Then it became a roar. For the creators of the universe th ere were no surprises, no mysteries. They had long ago lost interest in their cr eation. But now they were astonished and anxious, for rarely did they encounter

anything new, something that they did not understand. The life-giver, shes sick, the elders declared. She may be dying. The people prote sted, Shes too young, too beautiful, her transformation was perfect. They had seen other life-givers fail. They had burn too bright, changed to fast, landed too c lose or too far from a sun, or burst within from the pressure of solidifying the ir bodies of pure energy into chemicals and matter. Some had died of old age or collisions with another. None of these things had happened to her. Whats ailing her? they asked. We have sought the oldest healers to find the cause. T hen we will find a cure, the elders announced. What are her symptoms? they wondered . She is very hot, overheated, feverish, and she is very weak, her organs are fa iling, reported the healers. They brooded and worried. As time passed, they grew restless, occasionally spewing mighty showers of hot a nd fiery flashes of light bearing energy. They huddled together, a stormy mass, like giant thunderheads, filling an entire galaxy. Nothing else interested them . Only questions, rumors and guesses about the life-givers condition. For a race of beings grown complacent with the natural patterns of things, this was someth ing new, something to be understood and, perhaps, in its newness, feared. At last, it was announced the healers had made a discovery. They gathered to he ar the diagnosis. We have found the cause of her illness. Its a growth, a life form that is spreadin g over her body and slowly poisoning her, reported the healers. We know no cure. I ts a strange virus, or a deadly bacteria, were not sure. But she has named her cre ation that is killing her. She calls it humans. Across the width of the universe and beyond, a shudder was felt, planets shifted and suns burst, spewing rays of molten blue heat beyond the borders of their sp heres. And for a moment all that was trembled with the laments of its creators.