Excerpt From the Book

Bon Echo

The Competition

Log: Last Entry for this journal at Bon Echo Bay Lighthouse

Wow, I did my one hundred and eight steps to the observation deck just now and beat my last record by eight seconds. This lighthouse is so going to keep us in shape. I’m not sure, though, if everyone is on board with this idea, but we shall see.

I can’t believe that just one day after high school graduation, here I am, preparing to write my last thoughts in my very first journal given to me by my grandmother for my birthday just three months ago. Crazy. Anyway, if I need any kind of inspiration for my writing, there can be no better place than my Bon Echo Lighthouse because this is where it all started. So much has happened in the last semester of high school that it feels more like ten years have gone by than just a couple of months.

I’m just starting to come down from the fantastic day we had yesterday celebrating our high school graduation, and now I’m looking forward to this summer because we’ve got some exciting things lined up for the next couple of months. After that, which I still can’t believe I could accomplish, everything is now set up to attend university this coming September. I can’t remember being this excited about the future because all of this is such a “180” from high school.

Right now, though, it’s just me up here, and all I want to do is relax and take in the view. I swear, I never get tired of this beautiful, glistening, watery expanse before me from the lantern room atop the lighthouse. I always feel unbounded and limitless up here, gazing onto the horizon beyond the bay, imagining all the possibilities that stretch out before us.

Even though the region abandoned my lighthouse many years ago, we made a promise that you would never be alone again. You are like a second home to us, filled with the hopes and dreams of its members. We’ve gone through so much together, but that’s ok because it allowed us to build friendships that will last a lifetime. It seems, now, like such a long time ago when we first created our fellowship, but that, I guess, is the true nature of time.

It was here that we came across earth-shattering knowledge, shared and closely guarded it, and it was here where an ancient voice guided us from the past extending beyond known history. He mentored and prepared us with a clear vision of the important role we would play in achieving his commission.

As I contemplate Bon Echo Bay, my grandmother always comes to mind and all the fascinating stories she told us as we gathered around our backyard fire pit roasting marshmallows. Some of her stories even involved a few of our ancestors who first came to Canada centuries ago by sailing vessel. What an arduous voyage that must have been, but as it turns out, they were motivated by intriguing information passed on by their ancestors.

Thankfully, we rescued this information from the past, and our commission now applies it to solving present-day mysteries related to our work. This information held secrets that my ancestors could not decipher with the technology of their day. Now, we can decode these secrets with our current applied science. When I think about it, it amazes me how we, and many others from the past, have supplied the pieces for this massive multi-generational puzzle.

Ok, it’s now time to update my journal with my latest observations and conclusions.

Time as a concept is a mystery, as is the history of the Earth itself and its inhabitants.

It wasn’t that long ago when everyone believed that Earth began around the same time we did. In Roman times, they thought that the world started just before the Trojan war. Back then, it was about as far back in history as we could go. Researchers and scientists used religious texts and other sources for dating the age of the Earth. Later, theorists calculated, as best they could, but all these dating methods could not stand up to the rigors of today’s science.

Think about it. We have barely investigated the many civilizations that have come and gone from our ancient past, and now, using recent technologies, archeologists are discovering many more, which were invisible to the naked eye only up until recently. Scientists currently estimate the earth to be 4.54 billion years old, so what else may remain undetected?

As shown by the geological record, scientists now know that our planet's birth far predates humankind's origin by millions of years, or does it? I smile at this because now, I am so much more aware that the absence of evidence does not undo history. In truth, I may know more than anyone else about this subject. Knowing this, I genuinely appreciate the heaviness of this responsibility as I protect it to the best of my ability and guide it along into the future.

We have lost eons of human history with few exceptions, except the last cycle. Information from this civilization was able to break through and reach out over vast amounts of time, and yet, as incredible as all this may sound, serendipity still had to get involved to ensure this elusive connection from the past could take hold enough to accomplish the impossible. I believe we may never have discovered this civilization's existence if not for an improbable sequence of events.

When our paths crossed, the boundless past met up with the present, strangely giving us all the most crucial second chance we could ever hope for as our present world drifts ever closer toward destruction. Destiny may have played a role here, but I’m still concerned about what the future might bring. Ours could be the last cycle, especially considering how close to extinction we came to in this much earlier age of civilization. If we don’t get it right this time, there may be no more chances left for us. Because of this, we have pledged that this will be our permanent commission.

The world has given us many opportunities before, but it was just that, in each cycle, we were not aware of the earlier ones. Except, this time around, something did survive, and I discovered it, like a message in a bottle sent across an ocean of time. Well, anyway, it all still feels outrageously unbelievable, even to me, and I lived it. Nonetheless, vital information appeared like an echo from the ancient past, and this time, I hope it will be a good echo for our species. A Bon Echo, as Grandma would say.

(Side note) Curious how the names assigned to many people and places quite often correspond to their unique attributes.

Anyway, it’s time to close this final entry for this journal, and, maybe on a positive note, we were all meant to meet at Bon Echo, call out to the world and, hopefully, with some help from the past, get it right and create a good echo this time around.

P.S. You know what? I just thought of something that might lift my spirits. I just realized that I’ve never thoroughly read my journal from start to finish in only one sitting, and if there ever was a time to do it, now, I believe, would be that time. It’s still early in the day, and I brought some food, so why not? Well, first, I think I’m just going to walk over there to my bag and rescue that chocolate bar that keeps calling out my name. And then, after that critical first step, the right time to review my life will reveal itself, probably after the last bite.

And knowing myself, after reading it, I will probably have much more to say. So, see you again soon in my final journal entry.

If you, too, are hungry for more, and want to uncover what Maven will be reading next, click the following link to find...

"Bon Echo - The Competition"

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