Elemental Man

The sun shimmers golden upon the ripples as they move across the surface of the water. The calm of the lake water begins to dissipate as the ripples grow more frequent; radiating from the center of the medium-sized lake.

The green trees that surround the lake rustle noisily as the wind picks up.

Back in the middle of the water the ripples become waves, moving swiftly toward the sandy shores.

At the epicenter of the disturbance, the water bubbles and splashes up as something can be seen underneath the surface; rising up.

Up and out of the dark blue water a bare-skinned man rises.

His eyes closed, droplets of water slide off his muscled body as the figure continues to rise from the surface of the lake into the air.

Up into the bright, blue sky he rises, until he hangs high in sunlight above the lake.

Far off, halfway around the world, the sandy dunes of an arid desert begin to rumble and ripple as the water had done; sand flowing down into a sink hole that grows larger and larger.

And at yet another point high above the slowly spinning globe, a cloud formation swirls in the otherwise clear evening sky, and the dark outline of a figure can be seen in the amassing cloud.

Finally, on the high peak of a massive mountain top, lightning arcs from the dark night sky and strikes the rocky surface of a plateau. A fire sparks from the strike and the sparse grass and shrubs catch fire.

The flames build with unnatural quickness and are soon dancing high up against the night sky backdrop. And from out of the flames steps a man, the same man who had risen from the sunny lake.

As his bare feet step onto the mountain's rocky surface, the fires die down and he soon stands silently in the smoldering ashes.

A wind blows and clears the smoke as the man looks with closed eyes to the star-filled sky.

From three different directions, three silhouetted figures move across the sky toward the mountain top. As they approach they appear to be the same three men; eyes closed, moving steadily toward their fourth counterpart on the plateau.

The three move down to him as he moves to the edge and turns his back to them. They continue to converge until they each move into one another, joining the fourth to become one.

The wind dies down as the single man turns around to face the openness of the night sky above, and as he looks down, he opens his eyes to see to the world stretched out before him. Eyes that flash with the life that burns, blows, shimmers, and grows within.