myth for acorn squash

The world was forever dreaming itself. It dreamt of floods and fires. It dreamt of the deepest part of the ocean. It dreamt of mountains and magic that happens in between living things.

The world was happy to spend all its time in the dreaming. But it didn’t know that something else was dreaming too. Just because the world had conceived of all manner of things did not mean there was nothing else there, no other dreamer.

The second dreamer was time. Time wasn’t so ambitious as the world. All it dreamt of was patterns and colors, shade and sun. It didn’t want anything but a cycle. The world was sitting there on a mess of others who had dreamed before. But they never woke up, they lived their lives and died dreaming. Time was the only one who was left.

The world smooshed time as it snored and time just kept dreaming until it was nothing but a small point, like the coal is pressured to become a diamond, like the stick begins to burn with friction, time opened its eyes in shock. It was awake!

And when time woke the life of its dreams began to live through it like many rivers, the way our blood flows through our bodies. It became a star; very hot and very bright indeed.

Where the star was the world is burned. Where the darkness dreamed there is now a kiss on the world. We see this when we look at the acorn squash. We were given this food to remember the story of how time woke up and began the days and nights we know so well, and taught us when to sleep and when to wake up.