"This is never going to work." I waited. "See? Nothing. I have no idea how to do this and I'm not even ready to try."

A small, patient voice whispered, "how can you know where to go if you don't know where you are coming from? Start where you are. Be it. See the truth of it." I allowed the presence to move me, trusting I would find what I was looking for. I closed my eyes and was guided into the darkness.

What my eyes next beheld... The horror! I was outside my body, watching myself painfully opened in a way I'd never experienced! My flesh hung from its bones, grey and lifeless with holes punctured by the very darkness in which I was immersed. "What the hell are you doing?" I said, recoiling. "This isn't real! That's not my body." 

"Be open to the experience, even if it's rather... unpleasant," the unseen presence smiled with the darkness. "Breathe into it, and witness it."  I sneered in return, but took it in with each focused inhalation. I began to relax into the melted form in front of me, surprised to find understanding and the possibility of acceptance.

An explosion of rose and jade, and light and fields of flowers rippled forth from my body. I was at once in my body and in another world. The exhilaration of this new space nearly overwhelmed me. 

The smile turned smug, then gentle and patient. She appeared in corporeal form at last. "Is this not also the truth of it? Though this is a pleasurable experience, it holds no more intrinsic value than your unpleasant one. One is not without the other. Both have lessons. If you can learn nothing else, know that."

She turned to disappear into the woods. "Wait! How do I control it? How do I make this world happen again? You have to help me, right? Since you've shown yourself to me?" I pressed, stepping forward. She cast an insouciant glance behind her. "You may ask, and I may oblige, but do not for a moment think we are anything other than equals. You are at my service as much as I am at yours." She was gone. The world was gone, replaced by the ordinary one. 

At her service...?

How it was done

You guys, everything about this image was just a little bit difficult, frankly. The image of Siri, and also everything plant-like, was taken on a hot, exhausting, mosquito-ridden evening in August with a good, dear friend who braved the wild grey woman's attempts to go everywhere but "there, please!" with only a leadrope around Siri's neck to guide her. The image of me was one of those "I just have to go in and do something and see what happens" kinds of things. I set up using the same window in my office, only a little further away so the light had more contrast. I had a large reflector to my right to balance the shadows just a bit. I wasn't feeling at all good in my body, and sure enough when I looked at the images I hated them. I decided to try anyway, and came up with several unsatisfactory iterations by trying to force elements together that just didn't work. For the background, I'd originally used some curtains the never work when I try them, even though I love them. Ungrateful jerks. I had to scrap those and used instead the trees that are there now. Ultimately, though, my persistence won, and given what I started with, and enough time, I'm happy with the result. This one is growing on me more and more as I learn the lesson of being open to the experience. ;)