Still Creek Afternoon

We got away last weekend & spent Topher's birthday in the Mt Hood National Forest.  It was exactly what we needed in this madness of summer with all the hullaballoo & goings on....what a wonderful getaway!!!

I actually had a moment to write a poem....something I haven't done in quite some time.  I like it.

~Still Creek Afternoon~

~A butterfly sits silently by the softly shhshhing stream.  Its wings a subtle reminder of other voices, from far, faraway places & times, long gone.~

the cold-creek-water-washed breakfast pots & pans  - metal -  glistening in the last ray of sun as it sets behind the forested mountain.  it is hot on that side of the mountain.  you can tell because your skin has that warm, touched feeling from yesterdays foray to the lake.

but here, here, it is cool.  and quiet.  and still.  and the dog is sitting watching the stream & the occasional fly that he lazily snaps at when it crosses too closely to his snout.

over there across the mountain & the freeway & smaller outlying towns all the way to the city, it is HOT.  there are many, many people, many cars, many phones & many things you should be doing.  commitments you are missing and an old friends' party that you should be attending.  there is laundry like a rockslide & unfinished business.  paperwork, a bin full of unopened mail & a calendar overflowing of appointments like a too full shallow bowl of piping hot soup.  but here, there is NO SERVICE.

~That butterfly flew away.  I wonder where she went? ~

here the babe is sleeping soundly in the truckbed bivouac like a tiny dancer after wearing herself out at her first recital - her hands cupped & chubby.  papa's napping too in the hammock as it lazily buzzes over the creek between tall, mossy, wise trees.

and mama has put pen to paper after such a long time it has been - too long.  what happens to the days - the weeks - the seasons - and then

you get to come here.  You have the wisdom & intuition to come here to this place, on this day, and just breathe.  and just sit with it ALL:  humbled by the water, the fresh air, the blaze of stars in the night sky - so many you can't believe they are real - {when did you forget there were that many? it really has been too long since you have sat in awe of the milky way & its host of celestial wonder} - the calm branches & needles falling through sunlit firs

Everything is perfect.

~And that butterfly will return, one day, with new adventures on her wings.....~