Recede

As the life recedes from bough and limb, the forest kindled down to the bare spaces in between, the hills return as dearest friends. Stretching this way and that, our view now clear, they embrace our little life upon their slope, and with delicate, dignified gaze, remind us of those forces unseen yet stronger than ourselves, those which surround and support us always, and of the great Love those forces harbor.

We enter, as Nature exits, the festive season. Throwing the Thanksgiving turkey into my car, I sidle a bottle of Japanese green tea and a bar of Austrian chocolate into one hand. I throw the keys into the ignition and a Celtic blast ignites the ride home. I’m jangling through a traffic of cars like a lightening bolt on my custom suspension, forking to the rhythm of elation and jive, speeding to the joy of my own existence. I’m an American; burdened with the duality of knowing what is means to struggle for the impossible and to be constantly catered to. Proud and lonely country, set against its own vastness, falling down in a beautiful sunset, waving in a stiff, unending breeze. Pride is a sin after all, and we have fallen for it. Against the backdrop of our spacious land, our wild forests and giant skies, our pettiness is in ever greater relief. At a standstill without anything to stand on, remembering a dream that we assumed was accomplished long ago, always trying to go back.

When life turns away from boundlessness, the quiet realization strikes that not every option is open to us, not every summit climbable. I remember now the deepest jewels in my treasury, those a little nicked but burning with an inner fire of their own. Rubies like lingering oak leaves, emeralds steadfast pine, and diamonds like the stars of ever-lengthening night. Look to the aspects that out-last a fading, and find hope.

Photo - Lonely Sky