In the Beginning, After the End
Tempus was alone in the dark void of nothingness. This was all she’d ever known, and perhaps all she would ever know. Somewhere deep inside of herself she felt unbearable despair at her seemingly endless solitude. As her longing for others brewed in her soul, suddenly she felt warm tears trickle down her face. One from her right eye and one from her left.
These tears, borne from the deepest wishes of Tempus’s heart, turned into beings of light! The right-eye tear became a radiant, bright, beautiful essence that lit up and warmed the once dark abyss. Tempus named her Partum. The other tear, from the left eye, transformed into a cool blue sphere which developed shadows under Partum’s luminous form and brought some of the darkness back into the void. Tempus called him Diruo.
Like children in a playground, the two new spirits frolicked through the Universe, amazed by the possibilities that awaited them. Wherever Partum went, Diruo followed. While Partum took great pleasure in creating things from nothing, Diruo found enjoyment in destroying and dismantling that which Partum had created. Partum, rather than being offended by Diruo’s actions, saw these as opportunities for new creation and took the pieces of what once was to form other marvels. Tempus watched, proud like a mother, as these two beings of hers made the Cosmos a little less lonely and a lot more interesting.
Diruo began playing a game in which he would wait and watch as Partum created stars, planets, and asteroids and would randomly select ones that he would destroy right away and ones that he would leave alone for a while. Meanwhile, Partum tirelessly filled the once empty void with galaxies, small and large. Some were destined by Diruo to last forever, while others barely lasted moments after their creation. Diruo became so creative in destruction that he even began using some creations to destroy others, like throwing asteroids into planets, or manipulating the elements of stars to make them expand and explode. Partum continued to take joy in her sibling-soul’s work, as it revealed much in what she had done and what she could do.
Yet, as beautiful and interesting as her children made the Cosmos, Tempus felt in her heart of hearts that her Diruo and Partum were not enough for her to stay the loneliness that always found its way into her fragile heart. Sensing their mother’s dismay, Diruo and Partum secretly made a plan and disappeared from Tempus’s sight.
Of course, Tempus became distraught. What had happened to her beautiful companions? Was she alone yet again? It was not long before Tempus sensed something she had never experienced before. Intrigued, she headed toward the source — the Milky Way Galaxy. She continued onward past planets of ice, rock, and gasses, until she found one planet that was more marvelous and mysterious than any of the others.
Peering into the blue and green orb, she found that the planet had ice at the top and bottom and was covered with both land and water! Even more stunning, she realized, was that the earth was alive with plants and animals, as were the bodies of water. Her heart warmed as she marveled at the Earth.
Partum and Diruo joined Tempus at either side, whispering, “Look mother, what we have made just for you.” Tears streamed down her face, but this time nothing was created. All she could have hoped for already existed. Before her very eyes, hundreds of thousands of creatures very much in her likeness were creating and destroying, making and unmaking, rising and falling, healing and killing, birthing and dying, multiplying despite the odds of total annihilation.
This was home. She was not destined for dark, endless solitude, as she had feared for so long. No, she was meant to be part of this.
Upon her revelation, Tempus and her children, Partum and Diruo, became one with the earth, as well as the entire Cosmos. They are the atoms that make up every part of what we know and what we do not know. They are the reason we live, age, and die. They are the reason were search for something more.
Earth, of course, will one day be destroyed when the sun goes supernova. From the ashes, however, new beings and planets are certain to come. In fact, Partum may already be working on new forms of life. We just don’t know it yet.
