Tuesday, December 30, 2014

more reflections of things done

i have been fortunate in this life
for i have walked trails where none has been before
and followed in the footsteps of a thousand others.
I have taken worn paths,
leading to mountain peaks,
of lakes
and old abandoned mines.
i have entered into caves, no one else has been,
or if they had,
there was no sign
and walked in the lighted darkness
of caves open to the public.
Did i say that i had fear in those i believed no one had been?
i did and i am not afraid to say,
but the wonder of it was great.
i found fossils of sea creatures
now found on dry land
and minerals spewed onto the earth,
millions of years past.
I have fished in streams and lakes,
where cold water flowed
and in a deep and green gulf.
I have gone horse back riding,
on the dusty trails of the Big Bend
and taken canoes down a swollen river.
I have slept under the stars,
in a lonely place
and mixed with a million people in the big cities.
I have seen the sad dance of the Cherokee,
reenacting their "Trail of Tears",
for all to see
and walked with an Indian chef,
as a child.
I have huddled in shelter,
hiding from a mighty hurricane
and been blown around in a thunderstorm.
Rivers
and lakes
and oceans have been a playground
and i have swum with the dolphins.
I have enjoyed Spring
and Summer
and Fall,
but rarely winter.
I have saved a child from drowning,
in the crashing waves off St. Louis Pass
and been saved by my own father,
when one cased me off the Galveston Jetty.
I traversed the Rockies,
from Texas to and into Canada,
by car and foot and plane.
I have seen all the national parks,
from the mountains to the East coast,
but never the West coast.
I beheld
and held onto,
the Rocky Mountain's majesty,
but preferred the quiet solitude,
of the Appalachian trail.
I saw the Gulf of Mexico,
from Mexican shores
and ate tortillas from a street side vendor.
I was in the quiet square,
of a sleepy Mexican village
and the bustling market place,
of a boarder town.
Beaches
and Mountains,
Plains
and caves.
Field
and Forest,
I have been,
with eyes wide open
and nostrils wide,
absorbing all they had to give.

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