New World

I stepped out of my house and closed the door not bothering to lock it. All the
houses around me emitted sounds of laughter and giggling from open windows.
Children were unattended in the yards playing and amusing themselves.
Inhaling deeply of the clean fresh air I headed down the shiny new street bustling with activity. Many people in various native attire were in clusters up and down the avenue sharing testimonies and yelling out their greetings to me as I passed. I recognized several people that I had read about in history classes ages ago. I nodded at people I had never expected to see again. Many faces registered surprise at seeing me also, I'm glad that they hadn't been my judge and jury.

Every one here was multilingual and able to communicate in any language. We
all took great pride in our community, it had been under construction for a
long time. We had several gates to enter but we never closed them, the crime
rate was non existent. We had strict requirements in our neighborhood
association. No one was allowed that had a bad record or whose name wasn't
listed in "the book" with blood.

The buildings were tall and immaculate, the houses had numerous rooms that never needed cleaning. All were picture perfect, nor did graffiti or advertisements mar the walls. Thomas Kinkade must have been commissioned for the landscaping and architecture designs. There were no unnecessary buildings taking up space or marring the scenery. No fire stations, police stations , hospitals, medical clinics, funeral homes, women's or children's shelters. I passed by the blacksmith. He had gotten a new shipment of swords and rifles in today and he was melting the metal down to make plows and pruning hooks for the farmers in the vineyards and tree orchards.

We needed lots of food and all took turns in the gardens outside the
city. No pestilence or drought ever destroyed the labor of our hand. It was my
turn to take the sheep out to pasture so I went directly to the stables on the
outskirts of town. The sheep were so cute wagging their little stubby tails in
excitement as I led them through the valley that held no shadow of death to the
very,very green pastures that made me think of the Ireland I had never been to.
The countryside was dotted with rolling hills and sprinkled with wild flowers,
no weeds in sight, or in existence.

While the sheep grazed I lay down under one of the many tall oaks planted by the still waters that also ran down the center of town. The trees were planted for the sole purpose of providing me with shade. Their branches were overloaded with colorful birds of all species that sang to me as I rested. The water flowed so clear I could see the rocky bed bottom studded with golden stones. Fish were abundantly flopping up in the air and waving tails at me before they nose-dived back down. At the edge of the forest I noticed a black nose peeking out of the trees. Behind the nose was a wolf pup. He crept out on his belly towards the flock of lambs feeding nearby. With a huge leap he landed in the middle of four lambs and started chasing them. They ran around him in circles butting him with their heads, out came three more pups to join in the fracas. Then came mom. The ewes trotted over to watch the fun while Wolf mom sat on her haunches watching the melee and licking her paws. Finally exhausted the pups and lambs lay down to nap, then eventually the pups followed mom back into the woods ready to suckle.
I opened my lunch pack. All I brought was bread, this was a land flowing with milk that I procured from a nearby heard of cow, and honey that I scooped out of the nearest beehive onto my bread. I poured milk into my cup till it overflowed spilling down my arms. Yawning I stretched and snoozed. I wasn't ready to go back but I had too.

Looking into the cloudless sky I wondered what hour it was. There was no sun to measure the time by but I knew it was getting close to party time because I heard the herald angels singing. I rounded the well fed creatures up and stabled them.

Crowds were filing down the twelve straight roads that led to the city which
glowed brighter than Oz, the emerald city. Our city was built with
every glowing gem imaginable. Everyone was either chatting with his walking
partner or singing melodies, carrying hoes, rakes and other farming implements.
Not a tear or unhappy face in the lot. No one was huffing an puffing from
exertion. Exercise was good for us, this is how we were designed in the
beginning. There wasn't a grey head bobbing in the group. Above us tens of thousands of radiant winged creatures that resembled humans accompanied us. We were all ready for the big party, actually it was a nightly event,(I say nightly but it never got dark here).

We all gathered at the temple at the end of the river on Main Street for our meals. This ritual started immediately after the wedding that marked our city's opening day. Main street was lined with uncountable trees that continuously produced succulent fruit of all kinds for any passers-by to pluck. No one owned anything and everyone owned everything. Community living at it's finest. We only had the one place of worship down town and it was constantly humming. It was the absolute center of the universe. I stopped by my home first to change into a dinner dress and get my headdress. It was important to wear because at dinner we all tossed our crowns at the host's feet while we sang, "Though we've been here ten thousand years, we've no less days to sing his praise than when we first begun!"