24 March 2121 – I had a dream the other night. We had just moved into our new house in a deep, dark forest. It wasn’t a new house, but it was new to us, and we felt warm and safe because we had power to control what went on inside our house, even though outside was a deep, dark forest full of dangers. They could not get to us in our warm, safe house.
Something woke us up, however, in the middle of the night. Looking around, I realized that there was a creature a little less than three feet tall standing lonely in the corner of the room. It was most definitely not like us.
It was not frightening or aggressive. It did not seem dangerous or powerful. It was shyly quiet and passive. I reached out to touch it, patting its head between large, round ears. It was warm and fuzzy like large a grey teddy bear, but alive with large, expressive eyes.
It was not threatening. It made no demands, not even a request. It just was just hoping for a place in which to stand quietly, safe from the dangers lurking in the deep, dark forest outside. We thought, what kind of monsters we would be to chase it back out into the deep, dark forest among dangers it would almost certainly not survive. So, we decided to leave it alone for now.
The next morning, we talked about the creature that came to us in the night with no demands, just hoping to find a safe place to stand. We’d encountered similar creatures in the past. Most of the time, we’d accepted them into our family when we could. Most had brought some troubles, and took a while to fit into our home, but in the end they did. The life they added was worth the small troubles they brought. Some proved spectacularly successful. Others less so. All just wanted a safe place to stand.
The next night, we found the creature standing timidly in the corner again, just hoping for a safe place to stand. It eyed us carefully, not knowing if we were the kind of monsters who would drive it out into the deep, dark forest full of dangers that it surely would not survive. We called it over and patted it on its head between its large round ears to show that we would not drive it away. It lay its warm, fuzzy head on the edge of the bed with a grateful smile. It was grateful just to have a safe place to stand.