Dance #7: Rio Rio Pt 2 of 2
The incident in Rio Rio
was like a dark stranger
who sat in the corner of the
room waiting for its
opportunity to empty me.
The dark stranger began to hiss and chuckle
with soft groans as a light between the
stranger and me grew brighter.
Nothing was to be missed or overlooked.
And then God said,
This is the lie you bargained for
and the lie that I am saving you from
which is yourself as the dark one
intends for you to be.
But it has no claims on you and,
mercifully, the will that I gave
you was strong to withstand its
violent tauntings; you were to be emptied
of your self in the alley in the
eleventh hour by the dark one.
But I watched and protected you from its
vileness, reprobate that it is.
And I asked nothing of you, then or now,
and I am showing you so in My light so that
you may see that nothing is required of you
except love of Me and yourself and others.
You have been tricked by the
dark one that you were to emptied
as one who was unacceptable to Me.
Now, you must face the dark one with My help
and the recounting of what happened in Rio Rio.
I watched as it and lied and tricked you
so that it would reach the recesses of
your heart which is the gateway to your soul.
I watched agony consume you
with its consummate horrors which are lies.
I watched as it unmercifully filled
your mind and heart with terror
in the alley so that you would be emptied
by its violent will and discarded as nothing
of my creation.
This was its grand illusion.
God's voice was small in the
bright room where the dark
stranger waited to take my soul.
It did not hear God speak to me
as it waited for me to recant and
concede to its filthy wishes.
I have a secret to reveal to you,
now, God said, in His small quiet
voice. My secret will release
you from the dark one who
will concede to Me as all truth
and vanish with its arms empty and
its claim on you, void. Then it will chase
its tail like a mad dog back in the alley in
Rio Rio forever.
And My secret is this:
I love you as I made the spirit within
you to be who you are. It was nature
who made you in the temporal.
It lied to you and told you that
you must change to be acceptable
to Me. Then it planned to empty you
of your self and steal all it could until
your last breath whispered its name
in victory against Me.
But you are made by Me as you are.
God continued softly, My secret is
that it was I who emptied Myself in Rio Rio
so that you may live.The victory
is mine, and you have already won.
As His words descended on my heart
peace began to wash over me.
I turned to the corner as
the dark stranger came off its chair
and walked toward me. I stood
perfectly still as it said to me faintly,
Admit to me that you are who I say you
are before I hand you over to God.
There was silence between us—
a deafening silence where anything
could happen. But I did not shatter
or quake as God held me up to
the dark one who had a stench
I cannot describe.
Minutes passed like hours
before its horrible visage
began to fade until finally it
was vanquished.
At this, God said,
You are mine and I have come for
you and claim you as my creature and save
you from the lies it told you about yourself.
Only I can bear the alley
in Rio Rio where men, who
are not mine, are emptied of
themselves. And I alone conquered
Rio Rio in your place.
I have called you by name and
so you must never look back at
Rio Rio or the alley or the
violence of being emptied.
This is the end of Rio Rio
where travesties and horrors are
accounted for; and which I will deal
with according to My will.
Then My love, pressed down and running over,
will fill you so that you may begin your new life
in which you will dance for joy and glorify Me.
And I will toss your memory of Rio Rio
into My Sea of Forgetfulness, and you will
live your life as I alone have foreseen.
And I will love you as I have always
loved you
exactly as you are.
—The Dancer of Atlanta
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