Written in The Stars - Written on My Heart

If you want to know why eep formed as it did:

Luke 15:3-7

"Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."

Matthew 25:31-46

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Who discerns sheep and goats? On the Day of Atonement one goes to God, the other to the wilderness.

Leviticus 16:20-22

“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness."

And before really kicking anything else off, where did Jesus go, and to meet whom?

Matthew 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

And what then did he return to say, a new commandment?

Matthew 5:43-45

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

The foundation of my heart shook the day my father, Anthony Rodriguez, died, but I had faith that he was in heaven, a place I had considered good, without much additional depth of thought. My heart shattered the day my grandma, Stella Warren, died, because she did not share my faith, and tenets had been established by others and allowed to take root by being left unexamined by me closely. Hell was unacceptable in its generally accepted form. I could feel the whole structure of Creation shake, and I became unbalanced. It has been shaking ever since, but I was led by the Spirit to the gate, and there I stood, there I stand, even if alone. With little left to do but keep getting crushed, I began a process of creative storytelling, establishing for myself a structure that could fit my experience and the love I had for another that Christians might classify as a goat, by the parable, but who had always been kind and generous to me. By this logic she was a sheep, by the parable, to me, regardless of anyone else's opinion, and so hell bent within my mind, remaining structurally sound and retaining a sense of justice, but one abounding with mercy, in every crevice I could find. In the end it became much like the Way of Holiness.

Isaiah 35:8

And a highway will be there;

    it will be called the Way of Holiness;

    it will be for those who walk on that Way.

The unclean will not journey on it;

    wicked fools will not go about on it.

with countless pockets, not dissimilar from what Jesus said of his own Father's house, and even connected, one might say, to The Way.

John 14:1-4

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

So, eep is established and filled with hope and wonder, and all manner of incredible things, building stronger every day. One may take it or leave it, but much as I did with my grandmother as a child, not knowing better, I knock on the door, and it feels as though we have been dreaming together ever since, for me. I suspect though that thoughts echo in a timeless place, so she may have seen and known this before the first eep tag was ever penned.