A Tale of 3 Fountains

Here it is, the same sacred spot here in Dothan, nearly a year ago...Where I fell to my knees in brokenness. Much has changed since then. I'm out of school for spring break, whereas I've already driven home and helped surprise my sister, Brittney, for her surprise birthday party. I've been to church, hearing a great speaker that I heard once in Russia. But now, I am here at this sacred spot. Every person should have these sacred spots hidden behind the branches of a forest, sealed beneath the blanket of an amazing sky, locked within the bosom of solitude. -And there unlock the dimmed events of our weary hearts and thoughts, casting light upon those things we hide from ourselves, other people, and attempt to hide from a greater power. -And now just to let things flow....
In my life, I have drank from 3 fountains. These fountains are the substance of all that's good and desireable in this universe. The first fountain I stumbled across in Florida. I was in the oldest city in this hemisphere, St. Augustine, on a high school art trip. Our hotel, was not far from the legendary Fountain of Youth. One night, I lay in bed, tossing and turning, my mind charmed by old tales of this legend, that some claimed(mainly commercialism)lay not far from where I lay. So I snuck out of my room and crept through the mists and willows of the frog-sung night. I slipped through the gates that held this fountain and there lept over the murky moat where the old, ancient fountain spouted its youthfulness into the darkness of the night. The water tasted like the very opposite of its content. It tasted foul and dead. I gulped it down, nevertheless, delighting in the knowledge that I was gulping down life itself. Then I left very quickly when I wandered the area realizing that I had stumbled into Indian burial grounds.
The 2nd fountain, I approached in the ruinous city of Delphi, in the strummed prophetic heartschord of Greece. The fount flowed down....down...from Parnassus, the mountain of the Muses, tumbling across rock and stone, crashing into the gulley below. And those who sipped from this fountain, it was as though they plucked heaven's most radiant flower and imbibed the sweet mountain nectar from its petals, and from such delicate drought, a flowing of poetic inspiration, would blossom forth in that person's life. I reached my hand in through the bars, cupping a pool of inspiration and placed it to my lips, pouring down the creative ambrosia. It tasted like its opposite also. It tasted dull and steely.
The 3rd fountain, flows on and on. I first plunged into it 13 years ago. -But one doesn't know the full context of what one is getting into at such an age. One learns from continued partakings of the magnitude of such a fountain. From these waters flow purity. They wash one into righteousness. It the fountain of forgiveness. Such a fountain of joy should spring from a laughing source, one would think, but it is also like its opposite, and tastes salty and bitter. And warms the cheeks as it runs down gushing from the fountainhead of my awakening eyes, that see the lost reality of my own life.
....What would you say, dear reader, if you knew that the writer of this entry had defied the source of all 3 of these fountains? That I shook my fist at the heavens, crying into what seemed at the time, nothingness, the frothings of my uncontrolled spirit? Is there anything more ridiculous than a foolish compilation of dust railing at its own Creator? I seem to be a creature composed of rage and venom. I deserve nothing but, at best, death.
But I know, through the revisiting of this sacred spot, and the quick dash of its memory, I know that this is not the entire story. That was only my half of the story, the other half is.....
I won't ever forget the time I called and the time He answered, or the time He knocked and I answered. These two things live forever in my memory. One without the other can never be. So they both live on enshrouded together.
3 fountains I have drunk from. The first brought forth youth and life. Its Spirit swept where death was. The 2nd fountain poured forth divine creation and resonated with nature itself. The 3rd fountain gushed from two hearts pricked by sin, and was best drank when the knees touch the ground. Here is...well, everything important. We have the wellspring of life, we have the presence of a creating power, and we have the monumental redemption of our very souls. I say all this to let others know that I'm finally starting to grasp how important the 3rd fountain is. This fountain is the greatest challenge to fully grasp. Life...beauty...we know these attributes to gush with sacredness. A person cannot be born into this world without thirsting after these things. But that my darkest sins are washed away, and can be considered no more....this is the fountain that I sometimes forget about.