The Journey

Photo of Balanced Rock at Chiricahua National Monument courtesy of Donna Simonetti

I am going hiking

To a place I’ve never been,

To the snow covered Chiricahuas

To find my place of Balance

I can hear my footfalls,

I can feel the soft snowflakes falling on my face,

I feel the others with me,

Ancient spirits walking

This same trail

Seeking their soul’s moment,

Seeking and finding their balance

In this place so far from manmade things,

In this place so wild,

One is reborn

And made new.

I hear Raven calling,

Black wings against the white,

He is sharing his wisdom

And guiding my way.

With each footfall, I hear the chorus of garooing

Sandhill cranes emerge briefly in the shifting gray clouds above

Then fade away like phantoms in the mist,

While I watch each snowflake fall softly on the earth,

And coat the ground around me, erasing my steps

I follow the trail through lichen covered boulders

To the place of Balance

In these eternal heights

And I hold on.

I hold on to this thought

while the mask covers my face

and I slip into a dream

beneath the surgeon’s knife.

~Kathie Adams Brown (December 20, 2014)