WEEKEND IN FARO

 

Chapter One

“Be humble, for you are made of earth;
be noble, for you came from stars.”
(Serbian expression)

 

 

 

THE WORLD OF ANU

 

       In the distant galaxy, many light years away from the planet Earth, exists a world quite similar to our own. It is believed to be somewhere in the constellation of Orion.  There isn’t a present name for this domain, but old Babylonians were calling it “the world of Anu,” Anu being the main god of the heavenly realms.

       Most people don’t know that the world of Anu is very important for the inhabitants of Earth. This is a secret that very few know, but from the beginning of time this far away world was in a constant, unbroken connection with our world. The reason is simple: Earth and Anu are two parallel or twin worlds and the same people inhabit both of them simultaneously.

       However, there is one major difference between these two domains of existence. On our planet we are born, live, and die in the material world, facing our realities regardless of circumstances, whether they are good or bad, or at least that is the life process we believe. In this other world people live forever in a world of dreams, or as we on Earth would say, in the “virtual world.” We are convinced that our lives exists in a material reality, however people on Anu are conscious that they live in dreams. Of course, the world of Anu is not much different from ours except for the fact that everything is a dream.

Some may wonder how it is possible for living beings to be in two distant worlds at the same time. In the dream world there are two kinds of inhabitants: permanent residents and visitors. All of us go to Anu occasionally - that is all of us who dream, but whenever we visit Anu, we are unaware that we are in a world of dreams. A dreamer does not have to be asleep to visit Anu. There are many daydreamers who are able to be awake and at the same time, be in the distant world of dreams. The journey to Anu happens instantly; the moment we start dreaming we are already there.

       When it comes to permanent residents of the world of dreams, the story is a bit different. The soul of every living being, including human, has a much longer life span than his carnal body. It usually takes few journeys through many bodies for a single soul to complete its lifetime in the material world. For some souls, unfortunately, it never happens, and they stay forever in the vicious circle of life and death. But those that succeed to complete their journeys continue to live eternal life in the world of dreams.

       So, it is not a surprise that from the ancient times until the present, people gaze into night skies towards Orion, trying to find Anu. Every so often we look at the stars saying, “Somewhere there is my true home,” without ever realizing why we have that feeling. Many legends were made, stories written, monuments built—all witnessing the efforts of men to secure the successful voyage of their souls into the world of eternal dreams.

       This story is about a man name Nini. He was a god fearing and humble man who lived many centuries ago on the planet Earth. Being a righteous man and a big dreamer, he was often visiting the world of Anu during his lifetime on Earth, so often, that many residents of Anu thought he was a resident. At Anu, his dreams were always about the same thing—love.  But he didn’t dream just about any kind of love. His dreams were always about absolute love, the kind of love reserved for gods.

       His absolute love was not only the love for a woman, it was about pure and unconditional love for everything that surrounded him:  the earth that he walked upon and that gave him fruits, fruits that nourished him; for every plant, flower and leaf; for every living creature that exists from the smallest to the biggest; for air that he breathes; for water that sustains and gives him life; for every human being regardless of origin, race, belief, or station in life; and finally  unconditional love for oneself and the eternal joy of being part of that magnificent symphony of creation called the universe.

       For a human being it was a daring thing to dream about absolute love and the gods were concerned, but, it was the world of dreams. Everybody had the right to dream anything they wanted. There were no limits. And Nini was a righteous man. It was expected that his dreams would be pure and idealistic. Nevertheless, the absolute love was a divine category not completely compatible with the human kind. So the gods, concerned for Nini’s well-being, ordered angels to watch over him whenever he was in the world of dreams. Of course, there was one more reason for the gods’ interest in Nini’s dreams. There was a slight chance, after all, that men could have the ability of comprehending and living the concept of absolute love. If Nini’s yearning for the absolute love was the result of a genetically enhanced transformation and not just an accidental glitch between his mind and his soul without the possibility to duplicate, the potentials for a human kind would be unlimited. Nini could be the beginning of a new race of humans, freed from hate, greed, evil, selfishness, wars and conflicts, poverty and inequality, and all other carnal instincts that humans in their present form possess.        

       So, after a long and fulfilled life, the time came for Nini to leave the physical world. At the moment of separation of his soul from his body, god spoke to him the words we all hope to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant,” and with that, he left. Because he was a good man with a pure soul, his soul was relieved from the circle of life and death and sent to inhabit the world of dreams forever. But something strange happened upon his final arrival to Anu - he didn’t want to dream about love anymore.

       The souls inhabiting the world of dreams didn’t know why. During many visits before, love was all he was dreaming about. But now, when he was finally in the world of dreams and had opportunity to dream such a precious dream forever, he didn’t want to do it anymore. There were many speculations about what caused this change in Nini. Some say that a few years before his death on Earth, he met a woman and fell in love, but it was in the physical reality of the material world. The only love that he knew how to share was unconditional absolute love, so of course this love for a woman failed. The circumstances surrounding the events of unrealized love destroyed him. Nothing could bring light to his face and those who knew him believed that he didn’t die out of old age or sickness, but were convinced he died from a deep sadness.

       As a result, he arrived at the world of dreams without his dream. For a while he was wandering around trying to find a place for his soul. But for that, he needed to dream and the only dream he knew was the one he didn’t want to dream. In order to survive, he came up with the absurd solution to steal other people’s dreams. Something like that had never happened before in the world of dreams.

       On Anu, you could dream about anything without limits and without consequences, as long as it was your own dream. One could dream even of being a thief and steal and never receive punishment because the action only existed in a dream. Yet, to steal other people’s dreams was unthinkable. In the world of dreams there were only two rules: 1. Dream your own dreams. 2. Never interfere into the dreams of others.

       Events that followed have shaken both worlds and remain registered in the Book of Life forever as a warning—not only to humans, but to gods as well. What follows is the story of what happened.

(From the WEEKEND IN FARO  - The First book of the Michael Nicolau Series - by Stevan V. Nikolic, -Chapter One -unedited version)