A giant gulf separates us….all of us. The expanse between two souls…eyes and heart on an opposite shore, attempting to close the distance, although walking side by side through this world. Funny how that walk with one can be a gauntlet, a chapter out of Dante’s Inferno…while the same walk with another…Literay Way.. an autumn stroll…
I watched Belle walk the sidewalk on the first day of school…holding her Mother’s hand. Although a bit nervous, Belle found comfort….someone close with whom to walk. I trailed behind…remembering that particularly impossible gulf was never closed…I had to laugh, recalling that I left that walk alongiside a stream in Blackfoot territory somewhere in Montana. Baker was only interested in trying to get to class without hand-holding, a picture taken, or unnecessary embarrassment from his parents… he escaped into the 5th grade this week, never to be photographed willingly again.
Meanwhile, how do I describe my present stroll… Looking ahead…touching the rocks and trees as I pass…wading directly into the running streams without attempting to bound from rock to rock…welcoming the return of the new moon…. and another season. School has begun…. I’ve spent the summer months staring across a hazy gulf towards a contiguous mountain. I’ve turned the soil in this heat… looked back at my attempt of straight rows and fresh prints of my boots in the dark earth… the new moon is coming… a reminder of the harvest.