MERIDIAN by Patricia Todd

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And another age passed.

Potent Primordial seas washed the heated shores and fizzed into the stratosphere. Clouds of gasses poured sulphurous rains onto dry land and vast eddies of dust and vapour swirled in colossal whirlpools buffeting one another, eager for their share of the heated up-wellings from the planet's sub-core. Huge fissures appeared in the baked land and the continents cracked and drew apart from each other leaving openings for vast lakes and rivers to emerge and the land buckled and drove upward into the Cambrian night sky forming terrible mountains in this harsh and arid terrain.

The land cooled and She sent Comets hurtling towards Earth, for this is how she named this planet, which released their spores when the water crystals carried in the tails evaporated. The spark of life was ignited when the tiny spores found a fertile incubation in the seething seas. She cared for her domain and placed huge Planets in the same system as the Earth to draw the continual rain of asteroids and meteor showers that deluged this part of the Solar system, and this is how she named this bright star, Sol.
To set a motion in the seas so that they would not stagnate, she hived off a large part of the Earth when it was in its Cambrian period and this stellar body she named the Moon.
Now there were tides and the seas obeying a timeless surge, an ebb and flow that cradled the germination of the first living organisms on Earth.
She invested herself in the growth of all living organisms and felt her sentience far more strongly: Their fight for survival and their evolution was synonymous with her own.
She attained a physical form and felt the surging of energy in their flesh and she symbiotically fused her will into Her creatures, and yet She still wanted more.
Generation after generation, the Primordial flourishing of life gave rise to a myriad of creatures that were both pleasing and repulsive, but never enough of an organism to house Her presence in physical form and so She set in motion a drive to attain higher levels of sentience: The flora and fauna of the seas grew and changed, their DNA replicated with subtle changes that melded their form and allowed these beings to emerge from the waters. Here they faced new challenges to be at one with their new environment. They evolved and became adept at mastering each new habitat. They flourished in vast numbers and soon most areas of the Earth played host to thriving swarms, as did the Seas in their turn.

Finally the Mammalian tree of life produced Homo Sapien, an upright creature that had wit and intellect to master and manage its environment. This was the only form of life that had succeeded in harnessing the living organisms around it such as livestock and crops to good advantage for its own survival. This creature was adept at craftwork, and the lighter side of life, finding amusement and laughter in parodying itself:


This was truly a life form that She could occupy and meld with, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of Herself through the peccadilloes of this hominid.