JUST

"to be !" Here’s what I remember. One day I started climbing; I climbed until I reached the peak of Mt. Everest. I wanted to beat my breastbone and yell like Tarzan King of the Apes. Then, I saw a tree. It had grown higher than the peak of Mt. Everest. Using my rope, I climbed to the very top of the tree. “Ta da!” I thought in a kind of false glory. However, when I looked I could see an escarpment, a large piece of land that went higher. I thought “what the hell, lets go for it?” I jumped just wide enough to reach it. It slanted upwards so without a thought I continued to climb until I came to a dead end. My chest swelled I was higher than anyone had ever been, or so I thought. That’s when I noticed them. Stairs, there were actual stairs at the end of this piece of land. Imagine that, stairs, so I climbed them, one by one. As I reached the top of the stairs, I saw a huge bird that looked like an Eagle. “I can go higher” I told myself. I reached up with my arms and stood as if I owned this vast mass, of whatever it was. Miraculously the bird accepted my hands. I was excited as I wondered where my first class flight would take me. We reached the space beyond Earth's pull; there my magical friend released me. To my surprise, I kept floating up. To my surprise I had evolved, I no longer needed oxygen. I passed planet after planet until I reached a sort of tunnel in space. Like a black hole on an incline that led up, and as I had done before I did again. Without question I climbed! I must have kept climbing for an eternity, maybe longer. It was strange, as high as I had climbed and the higher I got nothing changed. Just an enormous amount of nothing. It started to feel as if I was just climbing for the sake of climbing. I was going nowhere and I was doing it in record time. I stopped. I mean I hit the brakes as if there were no tomorrow and I began to think. I began to consider where I had been and where I was going. I reflected on my journey. How many people had died or suffered injury trying to climb a mountain. What about all the wildlife I had to scare off to climb the tree. How many branches did I destroy? What about the escarpment, I never stopped to look. What was the vegetation, were there flowers? I can’t remember! I never looked. I should of gone barefoot felt the land under my feet; smelled the fragrance in the air. Then I thought were those stairs I climbed or was it friends and associates I was stepping on. I felt so confused. I saw there was eternities more to climb all leading to more vast “I don’t know what” but definitely up. “No!” I said aloud... “So what!” I whispered. What I did next I will never forget. I slid down the best slide you ever saw I felt like a child again, I could see and smell and feel and hear, I could taste the sweetness of freedom in the air. Back to Earth, to land to where I planted myself firmly. I started a new journey, one that drew me in to a mysterious place, with a warm feeling. I was inside myself and what a delight it was. I was one with all, a Giant Redwood surrounded by other Redwoods. What a thrill It was just to be. I was at peace. Here, rooted at the bottom of everything I found the highest point for me. Others who were just like me surrounded me. I basked in the heat of the sun. I fed from the richness of the land. I drank the cold water gifted to me by the skies above. What a joy it was just to be. What an incredible sense of strength I felt comfortable in my own bark. Finally happy! Just happy to be rooted. For now I am the smallest tree in the forest but actually growing. Committed and ecstatic, to be here. Fulfilled and at peace. Satisfied just “to be!” armandhamouth