Some days I feel, “but a drop” in this bigger reality we call life. Drifting aimlessly through my days of being a mother and wife. And then some days the vastness of my being blows me away. The piece below was inspired by a prompt my writing friend, Akira suggested for our writing group. “Beginnings and Endings, Endings and Beginnings, Beginnings and Endings again.”
I hope you like it and it gets you thinking about where you are in your reality. Where are any of us REALLY?
“The mountains gave birth to me. In the beginning I was only a trickle of melted snow but I grew bigger when drops of moisture fell off the great evergreen trees encircling me. Spring rains filled me up and I started running with glee down hill where I eventually joined a bubbling stream. What a happy time it was, gurgling over rocks and leaves. Once a soft brown eyed deer drank deeply from me and hidden silently in the bushes was her spotted fawn. Only I saw her.
I started picking up more speed and realized I was now part of a frosty creek. As we moved along, other streams arrived and they became my kindred spirits. We laughed and danced moving with ease and flow when suddenly a distant roar entered our peaceful forest.
The trees on the bank were moving swiftly past me and the loud noise became deafening, like a hundred lions lay ahead. Without any warning I flew with my friends through the air, falling, falling, so rapidly we fell that I lost all feeling and thought of myself. A crash brought me to my senses and I found myself in a dark green pool floating easily and gently downstream. Warm sun made me feel lazy and relaxed.
For a long while I allowed myself to be carried away until I noticed the landscape around me had changed. The trees were thinning and the land beside me was rich and green. Black and white spotted cows munched on thick blades of grass in the pasture beside me and in the distance I saw a bright red barn with crisp white trim. There was much to see now as I travelled along and I kept my eyes wide open.
I felt big and strong and realized I was no longer a creek, I had become part of a mighty river with a mind of its own. The powerful current moved so rapidly that I found I had to hold onto myself at first and then I flew over some boulders and joined the white waters full of froth and fun. I let go and became interwoven with something greater than myself. Suddenly, I felt an awareness of beings connected to all things.
My senses grew sharper. My vision became crisper and clearer and my ears picked up the smallest nuance of sound. Everything was alive. I marvelled over the wooden and then steel bridges we travelled under. What feat of engineering created those I wondered? Cars and trucks too numerous to count flew by me on the nearby highway and floating all around were all types of boats; motor boats, barges, even a little ferry.
People too were in every place I looked. On the shore I spied a little boy fishing with an old man. One so small with brown hair sticking out from under his baseball cap, and the other tall, bent over and wizened but between them brilliant sparks flew as they laughed over the little fish the boy had caught. Oh how delightful this world is, I thought.
Around the next bend I had to blink a few times to focus on the impressive sight. A mass of buildings covered the whole landscape. Many of them were so tall they seemed to touch the sky and like castle sentinels they welcomed me to come closer. I couldn’t take it all in; the people, the cars, trucks, boats and the buildings, were all so much more than I had ever imagined in this world. It seemed like a lifetime ago when I was just a drop in the stillness of the mountains.
All too soon my river slowed and I had time to observe people on colourful houseboats. One woman was watering bright red geraniums in terracotta pots. Some people walked dogs of all shapes and sizes on the paved pathways beside me and some sat in quiet contemplation on rocky beaches, their bench a long uprooted tree.I noticed some seemed happy and others sad. What brought those emotions I wondered.
In deep reflection of all I’d seen I was brought up to the top of the surface with a start. I was changing in colour and texture. No longer was I part of a clear river, but instead had changed into a cloudy grey and there was a salty heaviness slowing me down. How strange to experience so many transformations and yet feel exactly the same. And as I was thinking this, without any warning, I left my river behind and flowed into the endless ocean.
The end of my journey had come.
Or had it?”
We are all but drops. But the point is, “we are!”
Until we meet again I hope the love and light of February fills your soul until it bubbles over.
You are so LOVED!
Blessings from Hope