I read a beautiful story today as I visited the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. In one of the exhibits there was a painting of a beautiful sleeping woman, and an Aztec Warrior standing guard over her. The painting illustrated an Aztec legend concerning two volcanoes--the "sleeping woman" and the "smoking warrior." In this legend, a beautiful Aztec princess who falls in love with a warrior. Her father intends to marry her off to another man, but decides that he will allow his daughter to marry her lover if he goes off to battle and comes back victorious. The warrior agrees, and sets off. He's gone for a very long time, and eventually the princess hears that he has died in battle. She becomes so heartsick that she passes away. Soon her lover comes back victorious, alive and well. When he finds out that she has died he goes to her body and stands guard by her side. Years pass, and yet he never leaves her side. Eventually they are transformed by the gods into volcanoes. The woman is still sleeping and dormant, and her lover still stands guard over her, even today.
I don't know why that story meant so much to me at the time. Perhaps it's because I'm a hopeless romantic. Perhaps it's the part of me that feels like every living thing--even volcanos--has a spirit, and it warms my heart that the strong warrior spirit has looked after his sleeping lover for centuries. All I know is that I couldn't have come across the story at a better time. I'll be honest, right now I feel kind of like that sleeping woman. Life hurts too much. It would easy to just lie down and never wake up. But like her, that would be making a foolish mistake. She died convinced that she had nothing to live for, although her reason for living was much closer than she thought. I just have to keep in mind that though things may seem bad now, it won't always hurt this much.
