A Journey to Here

It is time for a summer road trip – everyone into the car, wife, kids and dad behind the wheel.  Early start and we head north.  I look forward to this journey. I want to go there.

I need to leave here.

Truthfully, I know, there is no there.

Forever there is only here and I must return.

Alas it is time to drive, my road trip to the north. Trees, great trees wait for me. They are wise, teaching their one lesson to all who listen … know where you are and it is here.

My real journey lies here and I cannot avoid it.  So much will change as this year unfolds. My search for there will lead me back to here and I will be ready. I will listen to the lesson of the trees.

So today I drive due north, family by my side, in search of trees and a place called there. Yet I know where my true journey lies.   I will return refreshed, wiser and ready to accept here.

 “Here. I am here.”

Lost

By David Wagoner

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.