Title: Tiger, Tiger
Author: Julia
Rating: angst...hopefully encouragement?
Archive: GG
Disclaimer: If I owned what George Lucas owns, I'd be sending her Obi-Wan instead of just a story.

Written for someone going through a very rough time. You are loved...and I do understand. Just don't give up.

~*~

How is it in a world full of people, a world bursting with beings running around like ants busy with tasks and concerns, teeming with life and energy, beauty and blessings....

You can feel so alone? Utterly isolated.

Unloved.

It's a lie. You know very well, deep in the logical recesses of your mind, which seem to have vanished under this onslaught, that your family loves you. Your friends love you.

So why do you still feel so alone?

If you knew the answer to that million credit question, you'd write a best seller and retire from the profits. Go find a nice tropical hideaway. Maybe a few cabana boys -- one must have scenery after all.

And entertainment.

But the brutal truth is...you're stuck here. Nowheresville. Going nowhere at the moment.

You feel as though you've pressed your luck -- and the patience of your friends -- in venting these feelings to them. Even after they assure you with words and hugs that they will listen.

Will always listen.

There is nothing they can do.

They want to... You see that in their faces. They're worried about you. Want to do something...

But what do you do for a person who doesn't know how to define what is wrong?

Isolation is both your answer and your enemy.

The more you isolate yourself, the worse you feel. But....being around people annoys you.

Quite a conundrum you're caught in.

For some reason it calls to mind a story you heard when you were a small child. You only remember it vaguely -- a boy who is chased by a pair of tigers climbs a rock, letting the tigers argue over who gets to eat him. The tigers chase one another around the rock, faster and faster until they turn to butter. The boy then jumps down off the rock and runs off to tell his parents about the wonderful butter.

You want to be that boy and jump off this rock...but the tigers are still chasing one another.

When will they become butter?

You're tired. Tired of all of this.

Tired of feeling this way...and not knowing how to get out of it.

"You're not alone, you know...," a familiar voice murmurs.

Arms wrap around you, pulling you gently back against a strong body. Twisting around you slip your arms around his waist and just lean.

It doesn't matter how he got here. Or why. For this moment you are content to forget chasing your worries and live in the now.

For this moment, you will let him be strong. Let him wrap you in warmth and push aside all your demons.

He doesn't have answers. Probably wouldn't give them to you even if he did.

This is your lesson to learn, hard though it might be. Pain is a teacher none welcome, but no one ever forgets the lessons it leaves.

His breath stirs your hair as his arms tighten around you, his body warmth easing your tenseness as it warms you.

Not alone.

Never.

Alone.

~*~

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
~William Blake 'The Tiger'