^2.17 When I left the desert and put foot to the road leading to
my village of Nazareth, I was still elated, exuberantly joyous
in the knowledge so gloriously revealed to me in the desert.

^2.18 I focused my thoughts entirely on all that I had learnt
and if my thoughts strayed to my former negative forms of thought,
I swiftly turned to the Father for inspiration
and determination in overcoming them.
In this way, I returned, constantly,
to the Light of awareness and understanding.

^2.19 Some people looked at me askance, seeing my joy
and also my dirty, unkempt appearance.
^2.19.1 Was I happy with drink, they wondered?
^2.19.2 Others looked at me with abhorrence.
^2.19.3 Instead of reacting with anger as in the past,
I remembered that I had been blest with visions
and knowledge they could not even begin to imagine.
^2.19.4 I blest them and prayed for their inner vision
to be similarly opened, and continued peacefully
along the road to my home.

^2.20 There were villagers, however, who viewed my pitiful state
with compassion and hurried into their houses to fetch me bread
and even wine to help me on my way.
^2.20.1 There was always someone who offered shelter for the night.
^2.21 The Father Life indeed supplied all my needs
and gave me protection as needed.

^2.22 All this time, I said not a word about my weeks in the desert.
I felt that the time was not yet ripe.
^2.23 Eventually, I reached my home town, Nazareth, and the villagers
openly scoffed, pointing at my filthy self and tattered clothes.

^2.24 “Dirty lazy layabout” were some of the kinder words thrown at me.
^2.25 I came to my mother’s door with a feeling of dread,
since I knew she would be more shocked than her neighbours
when she saw me stand in front of her: thin,
bones showing through skin,
eyes sunken and cheeks hollowed out,
face burnt black and lips blistered with the sun,
and beard grown long and straggly.
^2.25.1 My clothes! She would be outraged when she saw my clothes
– their original colour wholly obscured by desert dust
and the cloth torn and ragged.
^2.25.2 I mounted the steps and braced myself to endure the heat
of my mother’s fury.
^2.26 When I knocked, my sister came to the door.