Khalii knows: the seed of a heartwood tree drops like a stone, but it does not reach the ground. Somewhere between branch and forest floor, the seed is lost, slips through realities and is carried away. It rides on unknown currents, drifts upon streams of possibility and dreaming. In time, it finds its way to fertile soil. And when it sets down roots, it sprouts—
Excerpt from “We Are MAde to Bloom”
Not just in one world, but in two…
There is nothing so tempting to a child — or an adventurer — as a portal that leads elsewhere. How many of us spent the weeks after first reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe digging into the backs of our relatives’ closets, looking for a different world? Surely I cannot be the only one who sought out telltale shimmers in the air after closing the last page of The Subtle Knife, hoping to find a forgotten window, no matter the threat of Spectres. But I would argue that there is something more primal in this urge to traverse.
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We Are All World Walkers
Near every time I played in the garden of my childhood home, the elderly Baba next door would catch me stumbling through the brambles into her tulip beds. By the time she was done laughing at my trespass, I’d be sitting with a plate of sugar cookies and a glass of milk, staring up at her gathered trinkets, memories of a world she’d long ago left behind.
Maybe it’s those memories that led me to challenge the tradition established by Pullman and Lewis, of world-walking as something dared only by magicians and madmen. An act of hubris that breaks the design. In my experience, to traverse may be magic, but it is not unnatural. It is not a thing only ever accomplished by humans pursuing trespass as a purpose. The divine and the mundane are not so divided as all that.
But as humans, we have the gift of reason to decide. Do we cross the thresholds between universes in pursuit of mere escape? Or do we wander in order to return?
In the stories I have been building, the connections between worlds lie in trees and their ancient wisdoms. These silent guardians only ever grow stronger with the passage of time. Dreaming creatures pass back and forth without hesitation — insects, seeds. But as humans, we have the gift of reason to decide. Do we cross the thresholds between universes in pursuit of mere escape?
Or do we wander in order to return? This is a question that I tackled in my short story, “We Are Made to Bloom” and that I still wrestle with, every day and with every world. Perhaps it only beyond the doorway that we may find the powers necessary to heal the communities we hold dear. But to do that, we must understand the struggles that plague us closer to home.
If you’re an avid fan of fantasy, especially the portal kind, I’d love to know what it is that drives you to seek out other worlds. Adventure, romance, an escape from reality? Inspiration to fuel your real-life pursuits? Let me know in the comments!
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