‘What I focus on and see in my minds eye I will bring forth into reality!’
The Gamekeepers; Chapter 15- The Summit
I looked at Radharc as a solemn expression crossed his face.
‘I have never shared this with any other Gamekeeper before, but desperate times need desperate measures. Rhona I need you to think carefully about what Barail taught you, what has he shown you? What have you learnt?”
‘I now realize how important every thought is and that only I have the power to control my thoughts no one else, I can choose to focus my intentions on either the light or the darkness that surrounds us. If I feed the Wolf of darkness in me then I will manifest and attract darkness and fear, if I feed the Wolf of light in me I will attract the light and hope.’
‘Even though you humans often forget that you are intrinsically entwined with nature like; the seasons, the tides, weather patterns and migration of wildlife unlike us creatures you have been given your own free will to choose Fear or Faith in every minute and moment of your day.
What you have forgotten is that as you are a part of nature these choices have a direct cause and effect on the universe and the rest of nature. I have a rare gift where I receive visions about the Gamekeepers two possible futures; one outcome driven by your fear the other driven by your faith. I cannot show you your two visions, but I can share with you past visions like your Grand mothers. I would like to share with you the two visions I received for your Grandmother to try and explain the significance of each individuals choices and its impact on the rest of nature.’
‘Would you permit me to show you the magnitude of your human power? All I need you to do is trust me and follow every one of my instructions?’ said Radharc carefully.
‘Yes, I can do that,’ I said tentatively.
At that Radharc slid prostrate on the small patch of grass with his wings laid out flat extending over the edge of the summit.
‘We are going for a little ride before we do can you repeat this mantra to yourself?’ asked Radharc.
‘Yes I can do that Radharc,’ I replied curiously.
‘What I focus on and see in my minds eye I will bring forth into reality,’ stated Radharc firmly.
‘What I focus on and see in my minds eye I will bring forth into reality’ I repeated hesitantly.
‘Again, What I focus on and see in my minds eye I will bring forth into reality’ said Radharc.
‘What I focus on and see in my minds eye I will bring forth into reality’ I repeated firmly.
‘Great!’ replied Radharc as he nodded to me to mount his back. ‘Now take Sonas’s rope and wrap it around my neck and around your waist and secure it in a bowline knot, the knot your Granddad taught you for retrieving the lost livestock,’ instructed Radharc.
Before I knew it I was sitting on Radharc’s back with the rope made of stinging nettle wrapped tightly around us both, with my fingers firmly gripping his neck, terrified I may loose my grip.
Flight
‘Now keep yourself low and tight against me and breathe gently, we don’t want to cause any resistance when taking off or friction with the current in flight.’
Reluctantly I nestled my chest and face into Radharc’s soft downy feathers, by now my heart was trembling reminiscent of my first experience on a rollercoaster. Unfortunately this time all I have is a tatty old piece of rope thousands of years old, not a safety harness of reinforced steel. I briefly thought of my mother and how horrified she would be to see me now. In one day I had exceeded all my expectations of what I was capable of physically and mentally.
Slowly Radharc mounted to his feet with his wings fully extended, rustling the rain drops from his feathers before readjusting his balance to the added weight of me strapped to his back. Radharc slowly turned his face and whispered in my ear; ‘Now remember what I asked you, on the first part of this flight I want you to tap into the thoughts and emotions you associate with fear. I need you to tap into the fear Barail showed you in the forest so I can share the visions I received for your Grandmother as the Gamekeeper many years ago.’
While we climbed in altitude, I need you to close your eyes and just keep focusing on that fear until I ask you to open your eyes.
‘On the count of three!’ shouted Radharc as he began leaping forward from one claw onto the other like an Olympic athlete, taking a run at the long jump.
‘One, Two, Three!’ whistled Radharc as he leaped off the rock face, gliding inches off the face of the cliff. As we dived down the mountainside I could feel the speed and force of gravity pulling us down like a lead weight, before reaching the base of the mountain and almost missing the Loch surface by inches.
Radharc instantaneously swept back upwards in a 45-degree angle increasing his speed second by second swaying from side to side, as he tried to keep me securely on his back. Within minutes, we began climbing through the rain and above the clouds. I looked down terrified, as the land became smaller and smaller. Suddenly I remembered Radharc’s instructions and I closed my eyes tightly. I found little difficulty tapping into that emotion of fear with the heightened reality of danger as we scaled through the clouds.
As I closed my eyes, I could slowly feel my stomach flipping up and down. As I reached for those deep-seated feelings of fear, the clear fresh air in my nostrils changed to the smell of dirty oil and smog, with a dryness catching the back of my throat like a toxic poison. Repeating Radharc’s mantra under my breath ‘What I focus on and see in my minds eye I will bring forth into reality!’
Radharc
As I concentrated on what Radharc had said, I allowed the dark emotions to take a grip of me. I could feel my shoulders dropping in despondency, my cheekbones and jaw dropping and a tension in my back and chest jabbing like a teasing pain. I felt the negativity start to take hold as I reached for those pessimistic thoughts; the criticism and rejection at school when I failed something to the low self worth created from my parents criticism, the feeling of doubt that I’d never be good enough.
I felt the heavy burden of being a young person in 2030 helplessly trying to fit in being part of a culture bombarded with 24/7 world news and disasters and social media. I could now view my days like ‘groundhog day’ the addiction to the temporary high of logging into my social media account quickly followed with the truth in the futility and negativity of trying to compete with my so called ‘Social media friends’ and their fairytale profiles, fake glamorised photographs and false picture postcard families. Radharc and Misneachail were right I had to start being honest with myself.
I thought about everything that Barail had taught me and felt a shadow cast over me like a deep dark cloud. Then quietly I heard Radharc whisper in my ear; ‘Now please don’t be afraid, but open your eyes, this is what can happen if you chose fear over hope, this is what could have happened if your Grandmother and Grandfather had chosen a life of fear,’ whispered Radharc.
I slowly opened my eyes, finding it hard to readjust my vision. Instead of a clear dark night sky, we were now gliding through thick bellowing clouds of smog & dust. We had left the safety of the estate and from what I could see from the light of the moon; we were gliding up over the River Ullapool across to the East coast of the Highlands and over the North Atlantic. To my dismay, all I could see scattered along the coastline were small torches of flames from the ocean floor. As we got closer, below us lay a graveyard of rows upon rows of out of control oilrigs; burning fossil fuel that was billowing smoke into the atmosphere.
As we dropped in altitude, we could see large blankets of greasy oil floating under the surface of the water as large Asian, Australian, and African branded Tankers clogged up the Ullapool port like cars in a traffic jam. Where were the fishing boats and tourist cruise Eco-ships visiting our landmarks of beauty and natural habitats for mammals and marine life?
The further we flew south the more devastation we saw. As we flew close to the oceans surface there was no visible signs of bird life or sea life. Beaches strewn with oil-covered carcasses of dolphins, sea lions and porpoises, dead puffins and seagulls drenched and caked in crude oil abandoned and discarded like used plastic bottles and food packaging. The coastline along the Summer Isles, south of Ullapool was filled with second hand scrap yards overrun with dozens of moored fishing boats left rotting and decaying. What had happened to our fishing industry?
Sensing my distress at the scenes below Radharc began retreating flying back up the coastline and inland beyond the town of Ullapool. Below us lay the sight of a monstrous rusty industrial plant full of tanks with interconnected pipelines that stretched to both the dock and inland to the north and east.
As we flew, East Radharc gathered speed climbing through the clouds before diving below the clouds to reveal instead of acres upon acres of beautiful green mountain ranges full of our 1000-year-old Oaks, 450-year-old Scots Pines 300 year old Beeches, Silver Birches, Elms, Ash, and Alder. To my horror as far as the eye could see was a technological forest with acres upon acres of tightly packed ugly rusty wind turbines, with grey barren, dried up and eroding hillsides full of mudslides and rubble. The sound of birds calling across the treetops had been replaced with the deathly silence and the intermittent reverberating noise of old rusty wind turbines.
My feelings of negativity slowly began to turn into rage, as I realised there was worse to come, suddenly I understood the relevance of the tankers and pipeline. As we flew towards Loch Achall we glided over what should have been Loch Dubh. Instead of half a mile of beautiful scenery, surrounding 46 metres of fresh water, below us lay half a mile of desecration; a baron canyon pumped dry of all its fresh water with a dirty rusty pipeline leading to the coast. The beauty of the Highlands was gone forever, ripped bare of all its vegetation, natural resources, and wildlife.
For the second time today, the tears began to well up in my chest this time in disappointment, sadness, and despondency. I understood that this was not the vision my Gran had chose, but disappointingly, I knew in my heart that this could still become a reality in my lifetime. Our failure to come up with new creative ideas and innovations with an environmental conscience was visible in the unnecessary destruction that lay before me.
‘I think you’ve seen enough,’ whispered Radharc softly in my ear.
As I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes, I suddenly lost grip of the stinging nettle rope, as my body moved away from my tight grip around Radharc’s neck. The wind caught between us and thrust me backwards and I began sliding under the rope and down Radharc’s back. I could feel the emotions of blind panic and fear overwhelming me as Radharc shouted: ‘Release all those feelings of what you have just seen, reach for that feeling of hope not fear remember you control your thinking, you control your future!’
As I continued to loose my grip, the fear escalated inside me and as I tried to grab onto Radharc’s feathers, the feathers started to come away in my hands. The emotional impact of everything I saw had floored me and every second I was unable to detach from those feelings the more danger I seemed to be creating.
‘Rhona listen to me!’ screeched Radharc. ‘What did your Grandmother choose fear or hope? Which feeling did she choose? What vision did she create?’
I began thinking of Gran and as I reached for that feeling of hope I looked up to see Sonas’s rope glistening like an electrified rod hanging above me within my reach. Suddenly I remembered that this was not reality, this was not what my Grand mother chose. Then I remembered that small phrase and mantra that my Gran repeated to me as a child ‘Small ripples create big waves’.
While people like my Gran and Granddad exist these things couldn’t happen, they wouldn’t happen, they never happened. As long as there were enough people in my generation that chose hope and dreamed of a greater vision this would never become a reality. Again I repeated Radharc’s mantra to myself ‘What I focus on and see in my minds eye I will bring forth into reality.’
Suddenly I mustered every inch of strength and courage I had and in a leap of faith, I leapt forward against the strength of the current and grabbed the swaying rope. As soon as I released that emotion of negativity and fear simultaneously Radharc manoeuvred into a head dive sliding me back onto his neck as I regained my grip and secured myself around his neck.
‘Are you secure now?’ shouted Radharc.
‘Yes, Radharc I am safe, I now understand what Barail was trying to teach me, now I understand.’ I said passionately. ‘I will never let fear overwhelm me again, I control my thinking, and I chose to reach for thoughts and a vision about hope,’ I said adamantly.
With a tone of excitement and positivity in his voice, Radharc asked, ‘Ok then are you ready for your second revelation?’
‘Bring it on!’ I screamed aloud in defiance.
The darkness began to lift and the wind began to die down as Radharc began flying north.
HOPE
‘Now think of your hopes, your dreams, and try and muster every positive emotion in your body?’ whispered Radharc softly.
I looked up at the small twinkling stars far off in the distance against the blue indigo sky as we flew above the clouds climbing higher and higher, once more I enjoyed the beautiful clean fresh Scottish air. A few minutes later Radharc dipped his back before he began making the ascended flight below the clouds.
For the second time today, I had the honour of witnessing the inspiring beauty of the ‘Aurora Borealis’. This time experiencing the phenomenon from the shared vantage point of the magnificent Scottish Golden Eagle gliding in mid-flight, an honour and a privilege only reserved for the Gods. I delighted in the magnificent artistry of nature and the vibrancy of the colours illuminating the sky reaffirming my newfound connection with nature.
‘Hold on for the ride of your life!’ thrilled Radharc as he began exerting all his strength with his wings curving inwards, as he prepared to build up his speed to an extraordinary 120 miles per hour as if he was hunting for prey.
We soared across the coastline over the Isle of Staffa towards the island of Staff to the stunning natural landmark Fingals Cave with its 277 feet cavern with hexagonal basalt columns. Its cliff faces covered in colonies of stunning black and white Puffins with their vibrant red and black eye markings and bright orange bills.
As we flew closer, we watched dozens of puffins as they perched on the cliff sills with their bills overflowing with sand eels as a large number of puffins flew above us in a wide circle, sensing a potential threat. All the while below them on the cliffs was a stream of grey and common seals, arriving in their dozens clambering onto the rocks that led to their breeding ground, the shoreline caves. The ocean surrounding the island was immersed in marine wildlife and as we skimmed closely gliding over the surface of the ocean, we could visibly see schools of basking sharks, dolphins and pilot whales.
Below us was a pure clear blue ocean full of schools of fish and plant life. As we flew along the coastline Radharc whispered enthusiastically; ‘See what humanity at its best can do, when they use their thinking intelligently and positively with purpose! Let’s go, we have a game to finish!’ shouted Radharc.
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