Life Here

Yesterday, as depicted through laborious Paint projects, was a bit of a shove. By lunch, I felt like clawing out my zombified eyeballs, and felt a reflex similar to what I imagine cats experience prior to coughing up a hairball. Come my 1:00pm lunch break, I ran for the hills. Literally.

I needed to find something different. There's a steep hill several blocks behind my work, and I drove up it as high as I could. The road wove through neighborhoods, new developments, and finally ended in a cul-de-sac. I was initially disappointed-- I was hoping for some viewpoint to culminate it all. As I circled though, I noticed a small path leading to trees and wild land, running inbetween two of the houses.

I snuck down it.

And suddenly I was so, so far away. What had happened to my silly job, and the business park? I was literally in a forest, there were huge ferns growing, toad-stools littering the trees and stumps, flowers dancing with the thick carpet of long grass. I walked down a fallen tree, and stopped when it jutted out over a deep ravine below. Sat gingerly down over the look out.

And breathed.

Prayed. Gentle complaints about the wasted hours. It was quiet, serene; a thick breeze blowing. God. What is this stagnant life?

I saw a bird arc overhead-- a big bird, it must have been a falcon or an eagle. I heard a crow. The wind tossed the tall tree tops back and forth, back and forth-- two of them near me were rubbed together by the force of the breeze and made a squeaking sound. I thought of bugs, and the millions that must live, invisible, in cracks and crannies and rivets in the lush ground.

There is LIFE here. This is not a stagnant place. Find the living things.

That was my answer. So I found them.















I blew some bubbles too, for good measure.



Then I got in my car and went back to work.

And tried to look for the life here.