ISHGOODA
This past August I was gifted with a wonderful trip to pristine wilderness amidst the western mountain ranges of Colorado..
There were pines covering the distant slope..my eyes could not measure how far this was across the meandering brook which wended through these high meadowlands and bog grasses clumped in islands, short willow studded lands...a cup of life nestled between granite hands and was touched in unexpected places. The silence was profound..there was not a single sound of engine, roads or folks..only whispering pines and waving meadow grass..rustlings in the underbrush and the melodious gurgling of this stream, hawks circling high screeching and my heartbeat in my ears. I realized I had never before heard nature's silence without the sound of the stranger's machines intruding...had never heard this world as it was intended.
And I was grateful...
In the magnitude of the vibrant life around me I felt my insignificance...and turning saw the conveyance which had brought me here scarce moments before now silent..the intruder in this world...the smell of exhaust now dissipated in the clear high air and realized, only I within this landscape could disappear without a trace and not one thing be altered...all else was as it should, t'was civilization did not belong here..
And I was humbled...
Later, as the sun slanted westward shadows lengthening, the high thin air now crisp with approaching nightfall I realized a part of this life around me..was a song within me...each singer interconnected..one and the same voice and melody choirs and chords of harmony...this song of life still echoed spirit vibrant for days until once again..airborne ..I reached Chicago...here there was a chorus..engines roaring dully...people rushed to and fro..cars and cabs and buses everywhere going every which way..the air smelled of the death and decay of Man's creations...pollutants..my ears strained to hear once more this far off song of life...and in the deafening roar around me...its silence hurt the more..
And I was devastated...
I prayed in tears..Oh Please..let me hear life's clear sweet notes once more..a chorus raised in joyousness heard in that high thin vibrant air..or close my ears to death's wail which is all the song that's here...broken chains of life sung in every motor's roar....
Ish
Dec '97