Sunday, September 21, 2014

A Bard on the Mountain

            Today I decided to let the fates take me where they wished.  My original plans had to be changed and I found myself out in the world on a very nice day without a plan.  I therefor started driving, thinking and creating.  Remember that before anything is created in the world it must first be created in the mind so that is where I went.  Before long I found myself on top of Roan Mountain, and I mean the very top. 
            While driving up the mountain I started thinking about my friends and my family.  Now when I say "family" I am not referring to those people in the world that happen to share the same gene pool with me but rather those people who know the real me and with whom I can be completely open and honest about anything.  These are the people who speak the same language as I do and have similar values, thoughts and ideas. 
            Some are people who I have known for a long time like Ginger who has been a friend to me for nearly 30 years.  We could go a long time, even years,  without seeing each other and then when we do it's like we only just saw each other the day before.  Her daughter once crawled around my feet and drew on my shoes and grew up to be the best friend of the woman I would marry and cherish above everything else.
             Others are like Richard, Bill,  and Jessie who I have known for several years and would come to the aid of in a heartbeat because they would and have done so for me.  There are John, Matt, Jason, Laura, among others who are my brothers and sisters in arms.  They are closer to me than anyone who has any kind of blood kinship with me and I never feel completely whole without their company. 
            Then there are some who I have met only recently or see on rare occasions like Heather and Peter in Toronto,  Robert in West Virginia, or Grover in Georgia.  Even though I do not see these people very often or have had much chance to know them they are still my very dear friends, at least to me and in my mind.  What I am to them is their choice and no one can make that choice for them. 
            So why are these thought and feelings running through me?  Probably because at the moment I am the only person on top of a mountain.  No vehicles, no talking, no radios, TV, or distractions.  The only sounds are birds in the trees and the wind shaking the leaves.  I smell nothing but balsam, fir, and ozone rich air from an approaching rain storm.  I have been told that I have my head in the clouds and today that is literal.  I am standing in the middle of a water filled storm cloud that will soon deposit its contents onto areas below me and I wonder if it will carry a little bit of me along the way.
            I could be last person on the world right now.  But I'm not.
            All of those people that I just spoke of and many more like them are out there, somewhere.  Maybe they are thinking about me like I am them.  Only they would know.  It is enough for me to know that they are there, they know me, and that I love them all very much.  I will carry them and their spirit with me for the rest of my life, even if I never see them again in  person.
            And then there is Heather.  My wife.  She is also my best friend, my lover, my nurse, my helper, and my future.  She is my world.  There is nothing that I can think of that I would not do for her and because of who she is actually asks very little of me. I would lay down my own life with a smile if doing so saved hers.  She is the one person I have met who I could ever say that about. 
            So here I stand, a bald fat man on a bald fat mountain.  The air is cool and moist, the trees smell wonderful, and I have a world full of chosen family to come back to.  At this moment the man, druid, artist, friend, and husband in me are all at peace with each other and the rest of the world.  Maybe if more people took some time to stand alone on a mountain and just think about what is truly important to them then they would be happier just being a living creature walking on this world of ours. 
            Well it's time to come down from the mountain but I will always try to keep a little of it with me to help me survive all those things down there that really don't matter.  After all we are stardust and we are golden.  Let the world take care of its self and we can encourage those things to grow that would make our world a truly better place.

A Bard on the Mountain
The mist that fills my eyes comes from the air and from inside me.
There is song in me that must come from the deepest part of my soul.
Balsam and birds fill the air in the midst of a fine leafy orchestra.
They are greens, and yellows, and reds that make liars of artists.
The carpet is purple heather, white lace, and green fronds.

Here is Eden.  Why should I ever leave?

Below is pain, anger, hatred, spite, and petty valueless souls without nobility.
Why should  I return to them and let their world invade and effect mine?
Why not let them drown in a sea of darkness of their own creation?
They don't know the kind of peace that I find here or its effect upon me.
Their miasma of filth has no paradise, no place of utter peace and tranquility.

Here is Eden.  How could I ever leave?

I could stay here forever, basking in the happiness of peace. 
Alone while the worlds below gets what it has earned for itself.
Never knowing even a small part of this place or its magic.
Never having that moment that allows them to fortify against darkness.
No hope, no peace, no help against despair.

Here is Eden.  How can I not leave?

To share.

 I know where you are when I need to come back.
And I will leave a part as I take a part.
Peace be between us, always.

Now, to task.


I was under that cloud
My view after leaving the cloud.


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