Walking The Journey

There he sits, across the parking lot, never moving, always present, always on guard. He has been there the longest, he is the tallest, and he stretches above all others, witnessing his surrounding brothers, his relations of all kinds, taking nothing for granted, just being, just living, just enjoying what is brought his way. Not all have survived, he has seen many of his brethren removed before him, and he has been blessed to continue his existence. He is full in the spring and summer, colorful in the fall, and bare, mighty, and powerful, in the winter. When I first arrived, somewhat battered from past negative experiences in my journey, he was the first I saw as I looked out my window. I was drawn to him and found many peaceful moments in his presence. To commune with another creature of the same Creator can bring insight into the world we both live in, we both influence, with so many similarities. We both have struggled to maintain our place in this world. We both have roots that ...

One of my favorites, and the subject of an earlier writing, is Janis Joplin. I’m still known to say, “Don’t you just love being loved”, one of Joplin’s famous sayings, and you can still catch me singing “Mercedes Benz” on a rather common basis. Janis wasn’t the only one to sing about love in those bygone days of the roots of rock music, the music that changed the sound of the radio, caused fear in our parents, is still played today, and gave us permission to be just plain weird. Jefferson Airplane, The Beatles, Mott the Hoople, The Rolling Stones, Nazareth, and Joe Cocker, just to name a few, all sang of the oldest and purest emotion to humans, love. Sure, they also introduced us to the world of altered states of awareness through psychedelics, pharmaceuticals, and cannabis, but that’s for another time. From the time we leave the womb, screaming and kicking into a scary bright and cold world, until the time we leave the world to return to our Creator, we are creatures in search of lov...