Journal/Coast to Coast—Day 15

Journal/ Coast to Coast—Day 15

Date: September 5th, 2017/ Richmond to Danby WiskeTHIS morning my ‘being’ released a waterfall of tears as I REMEMBERED…

Stepping outside,
I experienced a tepid rain fall.  My boots sloshed, splashed in puddles…
drenched through and through, my soles seemed to sink themselves in mud, fresh farm fields, paved pathways, AND enchanting forests.

I have walked great distances in my lifetime…
I have enjoyed the challenges, the changing terrains.  My soul ‘greets’ these times and, while in the past, I have written with a certain sense of knowing—
I write NOW…trying to express the NOTHINGNESS that holds me and releases me at the same moment.

The roots held in my every step pulled out from beneath me as I continue this journey…

THIS journey—my life!

I tenderly cherish ‘the life’ I have lived, the encounters that have made me who I AM, the beliefs that molded me…AND that melt away as this rain washed over me!

It used to be so easy saying, “I know you God!”

NOW as the sun sets and the landscape begins to fade, those words “I know,”
I cannot say—

THIS Darkness, a shadow over me whispers, “Do I really know you at all?”
It is no longer simple…
My true self cannot play ‘make believe’ any longer.
The weathered roots of my soles keep on—
My pace is not rushed as in younger years…
There is not an urgency to get to the next place.

The ‘puddled’ day brought me back to a solitary Tree along the walk.
It was THIS Tree that spoke to me.

“Who are You?”
I replied, “That is my question.”
The Tree answered, “I, too, am asking this—
perhaps, we are the same beings in two separate selves.”

I said to the Tree, “YOU—see yourself in Me?”

The Tree replied, “Oh yes…I walk when the wind carries me, I am scattered in endless directions, my seeds impregnated in the earth.  I am birthed again and again like YOU…and I hold THIS place in the Universe for if I did not exist THIS place would NOT be as it is NOW.”

I listened and then spoke, “Sweet Tree…I AM one with You…I walk.
My legs all the way to my mighty shoulders have become a ‘trunk.’
I have endured weathers, I sustained injuries…but I have learned I can keep growing through/in broken places.  My “bark” is strong…inside I am fed by the flow of earth’s abundances filling me from the bottom, allowing me to carry the pack on my back while my arms, my branches, a pole in one hand for balance—in the other, a map points the direction.

From the very top of THIS tree, “I AM”—my eyes OPEN…enamored am I —beholden to the natural beauty I AM enraptured ‘within.’

The Tree whispered, “Well said,” and then it seemed to bow.
“But wait…Tree, tell me,” and before I finished my sentence,
the Tree said, “Rise…Walk” and so I did.

I looked back—only once…my tears ‘mixed’ with the rain.

I remembered so MANY who have made their way ‘into’ widening circles.
I remembered those present—walking with me NOW…sojourners in this life.  How rich I am to be able to call out the NAMES of my friends.

I remembered YOU whom I used to call God.  If tomorrow comes, and I pray it does—I look forward to walking—walking in all THIS unknowing AND embracing it all as GOOD…