Three hikes in three days!!! Ahhhh! Vacations provide a wonderful excuse to hit the trails. Today, as I was hiking green mountain, a westerly wind was blowing great gusts across the dry grassy hills, laying yellow stalks low to the ground in a rhythmic dance across a golden horizon. I opened my mouth wide to swallow great gulps of air. I imagined the wind traveling across oceans and savannahs, over desserts and mountain tops. I imagined it caressing the whole earth before finding its way into my eager lungs by the mouthful, to be exhaled and continue on its ceaseless journey. I smiled then. Arms stretched wide, laughing at the arrogance of the human mind to imagine itself separate from the whole of life.
When everything looks bleak and the darkness cramps against the cold, it takes courage to simply look out from imagined isolation toward the wide horizon of beauty available in every moment. It takes courage to lean into the sea of life and trust the tide. When weary limbs no longer support us, it takes courage to trust our inner buoyancy and float. It takes courage, in the face of darkness, to remember the light and sit in all our apparent blindness and listen, silently, to the still, small whisper within. It takes courage, in that dark hour, when nothing else remains. Eyes closed. Eyes opened. A glimpse, a memory, a fleeting vision of a light so bright it blurs the borders of things seen and things perceived into a comprehensive wholeness of being. It takes courage.
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