An early encounter with self.
My first conscious glimpse of the numinous occurred when I was three years old. I had just taken a bath and was in my pajamas standing in the bathroom combing my hair. I was too short to see myself in the mirror as I combed, but when I was satisfied that I had styled my hair perfectly I climbed up on a stool to look. I was taken aback by what I saw, my baby fine wet hair was sticking out on both sides in two perfect 45º angles, like the legs of a triangle. I giggled aloud and leaned in to get a closer look. Then, I saw it, not my hair or my freckles or my smile, but in my eyes, something drawing me in. I saw me, into me, into a self that I had not yet been aware of. It is hard to say how it was that in that moment I knew that this deep inner self was my own and no one else’s, and yet somehow connected to something more. This sense of the depth of me and my connection to all that is has been with me since then, and has been a touchstone of my spiritual life.
This is the first graphic story I have drawn, an unedited first.
