Member-only story
This year I signed up for Xtreme Trek: Holiday Season Cellular and DNA Holding Pattern Interruption. The challenge-trek began November 25, 2021, with the endpoint of Xmas, December 25, 2021. When I signed up, I received a slip of paper that read, “You have been accepted for this challenge-trek. There are four acts. Act I focuses on accessing a new-to-you Inner Portal providing direct access to darker levels than you have been to before. Good luck, whether you decide to choose this mission or not!”
I am a devout Mission Impossible follower and am particularly fond of Tom Cruise’s acceptance of his mission by removing his sunglasses and flicking them into an electric future. And, though my paper said nothing of disavowing me should I get caught or fail, I understood I would either complete the mission or would sink deeper into a shunning field. I signed my name.
Next, I tuned into a Holiday Season Radio Station and stepped on the path. At first, the trek was fairly mild, rolling hills taking me through divine light and hovel-huddling for protection against roaming despair and sad squalls. Carol Of The Bells lifted me and Holy Night touched my soul. Then I saw the new-to-me Inner Portal, a small wooden door fitted into a hillside with a soft bronze handle and a tiny hatch window. The timing was ripe because all I had to do was touch the handle, and the door opened inward, revealing a sharply descending dirt path between two earthen walls.
Instinctively my breath went shallow as Please Come Home For Christmas came through the…
