In the darkness of the cave you trace the soft dust of the floor with the back of your hand to feel the temperature. [[Warmth.]]Warmth means you're close to another. You hear another's breath. [[You reach out.]]Your hands move wildly in the permanent midnight. You feel nothing around you, But the soft shuffle of wind as someone purposefully Denies your touch. [[Another sound.]]In the darkness you hear it closer - a shuffling creak, an elder. It moves close to you. Their mouth moves near your ear, heated breath whispers, "Shhh." ... "Be soft like a small word. Be soft and easy and give in softly. Be small." The voice gives you advice - "Be kind and graceful. Let me talk and tell you. [[Understand?]]"The hot breath continues, "Let me teach you a thing." The body grazes the back of it's hand down onto the dust floor of the cave. "Beginning THIS is hard, to be here, at the start - a hard & a rough thing. To be at the end, That is much harder." [[The body sighs,]] "In the middle," "There's nothing to watch over - to cling to. There's nothing to see and forget yourself to. That is the hardest part. The stone part. The part where there is not yet [[Dust.]]"The body whispers, "When there is dust, no matter it's feel. Cold, Warm, It is a sign. The hardest part - is already over." [[The End.]] "But, the hardest part - the middle. The part where 'nothing happens'. Where you lie still, Waiting, Being there and being soft & tiny & minute like a small word. That is the hardest part." [[It continues...]]