Doorway - Lois Daley

I have left home ,no easy task for me as I have over the years found it very difficult to leave "The Home that encircles me in Love" I have in the past been in a state of panic when I was too far away to get home quickly..It is getting easier as this 10 years comes up in August and I am much more relaxed about moving away for awhile...this will be my longest journey 3 months sounds such a long time.......
On travelling from the aiport I was directed to the bus depot and was on my way to Umbria ...The terrain was so different to my own country of Australia not a GUM tree in sight, quite different and beautiful just the same..
As per my usual manner of talking to everybody I meet whehter I know them or not the journey was far from lonely.Luckily 1/2 of the other travellers I met spoke a little English,so it was a wonderful trip and 5 hour journey passed quickly.
We arrived at the terminus of the bus depot Aquila which was at the base of the mountaines area I could see in the distance.
I popped into a small roadside cafe for a much needed coffee and was served by a young woman who spoke a scattering of English.I asked of her "Have you ever heard of the Cave of Sibyl of the Grotto" she is said to have .. lived in the Umbrian mountains in the 13th Century.
" Oh you mean the the Grotto della Sibilla" she replied."We have learned the legend from our Mothers and Grandmothers" she said."But I have never ventured up there myself especially on my own I just would not be allowed to go ,but when I turn 21 I will go with my female relatives to drink the water that runs down the mountains into the Grotto as I am told it has magic restorative powers for good health and happiness".
As it was too far to hike to the caves/grotto I hired a very old man to take me up in his horse and cart as far as he could and this is how I came to within 1 mile of my promised dooway.It was at this time I decided the bag was becoming heavy and I abandoned it for my small cotton backpack ,covering my late Mother Jessies' over-night bag under some bracken and covering it with rocks.
The climb was not too steep so I set off breathing in the mountain air,no directions or posts to show the way just a well worn path travelled for nearly a thousand years I would imagine ....The path turned to the right as if to follow the sun drenched side of the mountain ,the name of which I knew not,Where the rain had run down was slippery and I had to tread carefully.
Then I saw to my surprise a group of yellow blossom trees similiar to our Wattle ,they were the only ones I had seen so they must be important
As I walked toward them there was an opening,like an archway and behind a door as old as the hills around it..Made from the trees that covered the mountain ,so strong and knarled ,worn by age ,what type of timber could last this many centuries I thought ,it was then I remembered a timber called Huon Pine found in the forests of Tasmania Australia that is among the oldest timber in the world...perhaps it was a distant relative of Huon Pine,of course it could be I thought.
The latch and hinges... . were of the same timber ,attatched to the large posts on either side that had been sunk into the ground so long ago ,no metal to be seen on this door......It was at least 10 feet high by 5 feet wide (as wide as I am tall) .
I thought I would have difficulty in opening it but it seemed light to my touch as if it had been waiting for me and had made it easy for opening.
This reminded me of my life over the last 10 years when I have felt that those I have met on my journey have all made it so easy for me in accepting me into their families as if by some magic spell I have been able to go through their welcoming doorways so easily and now it was happening again...I considered myself a blessed woman indeed....
I entered the cave/grotto and it was then I realised I had forgotten my torch ,in fact it was still at home in Port Melbourne..I thought hard and grabbed a branch of the yellow like tree blossom and used it to fan in front of me as I was in unfamiliar territory...Strangley I felt no fear perhaps because I knew that women had tramped this cave earth before me so I was walking in their footsteps.,I knew I would be safe....MY journey was about to begin.One dooway shut another just opening on a new part of my wonderful life.