I went yesterday for a late afternoon hike. As the shadows grew long and the sunshine grew soft, I let my mind wander. My feet know the way, and my body needs no direction, so my eyes watched the forest, and my mind searched my heart. Late August wind lifted my hair and kissed my face. And the song I heard was spellbinding. Birds, of all sorts, cooing and chirping. A morning dove calling a late afternoon call, and turkey were frolicking off to the West. Crickets were loud, with end of day near, and water flowed freely down the hill, gurgling and bubbling through culvets laid two hundred years ago. The foundations I am so familiar with, took on yet a new glow in the long shadows of August sun. Drained of water now, and carpeted with leaves, it is easy to stand inside, with the walls built up around, and imagine and wonder. Two hundred years ago, a wife prepared supper here, the fire was lit in the fireplace, and her husband was out tending the land and keeping them fed. A hard life, but simple, and I find myself jealous of it. But for now, I can just imagine, and let it take me away.

I continued my hike upward, heating up, and slowing down with the incline. All the while letting my mind wander and race. Like letting an animal run wild, with no direction, no reigns. No matter what though, it always returns to the same. Not money, not work, not vanity nor prosperity. These all mean so little to me.  Life and love, and purpose. Mother Nature, always putting things in perspective. Forever reminding me that I am but a small part of her. But a piece nonetheless. My heart aches with the beauty of the forest, and even after hiking here a thousand times, my eyes grow wide with wonder and amazement, and I feel loved. Unconditionally. My heart also aches for the love of a man, the touch of he who moves me. I know I have it, his undying love, and it lifts me to heights in the heavens. It is overwhelming. An avalanche of emotion, and I need time here, in my forest, to speak with my Mother, and listen to her wind, to ground me again.

The answers are here, how to survive the avalanche, and how to love and how to accept love. I sat on top, and then I laid and watched the clouds. And the wind moved over my body, and the rock was solid beneath. Life is such a mystery, and here are all the answers, I just don’t know how to read them yet. But until I do, I will ride the avalanche and watch the sky.