Interlude

One foot, then the other. Take me to the source. First, a small foot trail from the edge of town into the low canopy. Then my feet take me farther up the canyon to the wellspring where earth’s power is stillness and gravity. The heat subsides and the birds call. Just sit and wait. Other animals call. Insects and mammals I do not know, and a dead fox off the trail where few have walked. The sounds are exquisite and then go silent, like the mystery the earth is. Alone in the canyon, I hear the wind shake the trees and the distant rumble of thunder. A drop of rain on my forehead, then more droplets on the leaves above. I tremble, I shudder, I shake. Earth has taken me into its refuge; the land held me in its womb. I am born again to this goddess; a man of earth and sky now, of the trees and the clouds, the dirt and the stars…until time and space abate to the wide and open light.