THE WRITINGS OF A WANDERING WIDOW: An Hour? A Mile? What's The Difference?

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

An Hour? A Mile? What's The Difference?

I find a place like this when I feel like a misfit. When I doubt who I am and where I am going, I
come here. Not specifically the Shawnee National Forest, but an environment like this.

I seek out a safe place where there is no judgement.

This is the energy of just being.

Can you feel it?

Notice how the trees unite as a forest and the minnows swimming in the lake come together as schools, while the birds, with their swooping gracefulness, form flocks that shadow the sky. Each group exists, committed100% to just being what they are.

Unity

The bird does not expect the tree to fly and minnow has no desire to reach it fins up to the sky. Instead, because of just "being," the results of their unison have created a magical union of beauty, shelter, song and sustenance for one another Did this happen in an hour or within a mile?

What do you see when you look out your window?

Unplug. Give yourself back to your beginnings, like the trees, the waters, and fowl have done.
Go back to a time when you were just striving to be a child, learning to walk, to explore and you enjoyed the wide world that surrounded you. There were no words in your vocabulary like shouldn’t, couldn’t or wouldn’t. Lke this scene in all its glory, you were just a beautiful, one-of-a-kind being, curious and accepting of all that the world offered.

What good does it do, you ask?

Sometimes it is good to remember where we have come from.
We were once like the saplings in the forest, small and vulnerable, struggling to become what they are meant to be. If we slow down, we will notice that the saplings grow taller, wider and better. They strive to reach their purpose, stretching and swaying in the winds, just as we must learn to do during our strife.

Through the harsh winter the forest donates its leaves to shelter the less hardy vegetation lying at its roots. With total faith, the trees bare themselves, offering their abundance in a fanfare of rainbow colors, unaware of the lesser plants’ promise to return favor with the kindness of nourishment which the trees will need in spring.
Unity.

The Mississippi River, at its’ widest it is eleven miles wide. Its waters flow over 2300 miles, through 31 states while hundreds of tributaries, including the Ohio and Missouri rivers contribute to the Mississippi’s mightiness.

Unity.

Does this historic ever flowing entity with its millions of raindrops realize what its future involves? Does it understand its potential? I don’t think so. I believe the river has become supreme because of her unquestioning faith and belief in its process as each raindrop, each tributary and river contributes to her being --- one hour , one mile and one state at a time.

Unity.

And yet I walked across this mighty body of water which rages so strongly at times, that its massive power wipes out cities and towns in its wake.

How is that possible?

I went back to the river's beginnings at Lake Itasca, Minnesota. Here she is shallow and only twenty feet wide. We all have humble beginnings.

In my journey I want to strive to become like the forests and the mountains and the Mighty Mississippi. I want to believe and trust that during this one hour and this one mile that all the people I encounter and the places which offer their influence --- all a part of a beautiful, inspirational picture that is more wonderous than I can imagine.

One hour?

One mile?

Use your time and journey to their fullest!!

Magic will happen!

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