HOLLOWED IN THE HALLOWED HALLS ☼ Magdalen Watercolor {Art Print}

HOLLOWED IN THESE HALLOWED HALLS

Hollowed by life, she found her home in the hallowed halls of ancient Alexandria. Fatherless and estranged from her mother, she had lived with her merchant uncle in one of the finest homes in Galilee, north of his Judean birthplace. But, even there surrounded by the beauty that brought her to life, her fiery temperament, free-spirited passion for adventure, and tendency toward trouble had meant "something had to be done."

They had seen in her a thirst for the ancient desert wisdom and a keen desire for knowledge. "There's something about Mary," they would say, as if she were a specimen. She wanted a place in the world of her own—one not defined by man, so when her uncle made it possible for her to make the journey south, she set sail with a happy heart. And so it was she made that first journey to Egypt—a land she loved and made her home for a time and later.

She was among those with the sharpest minds and could use the blade and harness the powers of the deep. But when she walked alone through the ancient halls, from the shadows the Mothers saw the inner torment brewing on the angry seas. She pretended not to notice, not to care. She focused instead upon her studies and the Hebrew scriptures she knew by heart. She made this place her home and learned to love their echoed calls. 

Still, she seemed to herself and to others to be of another world, discontent and troubled by the plunderous pace of things and the slow spin cycle of this life. It would be some years later when the childhood acquaintance (Jesus, the one she would call Rabboni and her Teacher) and she would meet again. He would heal her and fill her with the light of a love she recognized as home. He would set the stars within her spinning right again. In him, she would find her home and let the tears fall like a river of stars.