Year: 2015

This woman saw herself as a young soldier wearing the uniform of the Roman Empire.  At first she felt herself as being disoriented, a little afraid, and holding something in her hand.  She was male, taller than average,  alone, somehow separated from the troops. 

Later, after the battle, he found himself as an grown man, the battle behind him.  He was kneeling down by a small hut, only large enough for one person, gazing down a path.  He was poor and alone.  After moving forward along this life's course, he found happiness in discovering that he now has a daughter and his daughter has two children.  He believes his daughter in this life to be his present day daughter.  This is now the year after the fall of the Roman Empire.  He lives with his daughter and her husband and two children in a small hut.  His daughter cooks for him over a wood stove, and she fusses over him, bringing him food.  He is now a field worker, and he works the land owned by his daughter and her husband.  The husband doesn't respect or accept him, but he can ignore that because he is so content to be near his daughter and grandchildren.  He isn't sure what happened to his wife.  From their small home they can look down on the fields and valley's below. 

When he moves forward to his 80s, he finds himself in the home of a neighbor, too frail to move.  His neighbor is a young man who tries to make him comfortable, but he does not know where his daughter or her family is.  Nevertheless, he contents himself in his last hours with his memories of his family, the land, musing on the forest, the fields and the valleys.  He's content and peaceful as he passes from this life.

 

This woman saw herself beginning life in the southern region of Spain as a little boy.  Before the age of 7 he was happy and carefree, seeing himself running through the meadows, picking flowers and chasing butterflies.  All that changes in a single day when he was 7 years old.

Soldiers dressed in black came through his village, destroying everything and killing everyone, shouting in an unfamiliar language.  His mother, father and sister were killed during the attack but at the urging of his mother he hid from the soldiers.  From his hiding place he could see smoke as the buildings and bodies were being burned.  He was lost with no where to go and a heaviness in his heart. He makes the conscious decision that he will never love again because he doesn't want to take the risk of the heartbreak of losing someone he loves again.  He is going to lead a solitary life.

He wanders around aimlessly for a while, nourishing himself only on whatever berries or edible plants he can find.  When he finds another village he steals bread, but stays hidden and apart.  As he grows older and more adept at stealing to sustain himself, he begins to look on those he pilfers from as small minded, naive people who are living meaningless lives, just going through the motions.  He fails to see beauty in anything, he fails to acknowledge love or kindness as anything but silly and naive.  He feels bitterness and even a sense of superiority over all he meets, believing that he is wise to avoid relationships and they are stupid to find any purpose in life. He doesn't understand these people with their small lives and he believes himself to be an observer, even a philosopher, with much more understanding and wisdom than those he observes.  He has no home, he travels and sleeps wherever he can find shelter outside, far away from people.

When he moves forward in time to his death scene he finds himself in a wooden building which he understands to be a hospital dedicated to sheltering the poor, the homeless, and the dying.  There are rows of makeshift beds with dirty sheets, staffed by women who give water to those who are unable to drink by themselves and check foreheads for fevers.  There he dies unnoticed, un-mourned, unloved.