UP Dreams: 2019

Life is funny.

You never never know when you are going to suddenly get completely lost, or completely found.

Today, I am found.

The planets align.

Whatever you want to call it.

Life is like that. Sometimes a seed you planted way back in, say, 1994, grows up to be the most beautiful tree in the forest. You can't plan it, even if you think you did, because there are so many invisible variables. Invisible to you, anyway. Because we live in one time at a time, and one place at a time. We move at one speed at a time, and can't even begin to see the big picture or the small picture.

I am a forest girl. I love the big of the forest,

and the small of the forest.

I love its complexity, how the many types of trees give just the smallest hint of the different and diverse life forms that call it their home. I love the simplicity of air that calms you as you breathe in and out, and the patterns of the birdsong there, and the sound of the wind. I love how one forest is completely different from another one, even just a little way down the path.

I love how sometimes you can get lost, and the forest becomes dark and dappled with only the tiniest bits of light; the underbrush becomes so thick that you know you couldn't escape the zombies/psychopaths/chainsaw-wielding-banjo-playing-cannibals/Those We Don't Speak Of who might be trying to catch up with you there (sorry....I watch too many movies and the forest NEVER scares me!).

But today, what I mostly love is how the forest can sometimes just reveal to you something so beautiful that it literally takes your breath away. Sometimes it is something so small....a tiny flower.

Just a little bit of the Bad Color (favorite movie reference)

Or sometimes, it is something BIG. Sometimes right in the center of the deep and dark, the thorns and vines and the bumpy parts that try to trip you up and slow you down, the tallest tree has broken through the canopy to touch the sunlight and deep, deep blue of the sky.

And it become apparent to me that all of life is this. And instead of fighting the thorns and vines and dark places, I need to love it all, every minute, because there is great joy in every bit of it, no matter how big or how small. Not a very subtle reminder, God.

I don't know what to call what I am experiencing today.
Beauty, certainly. Glory. Truth. Joy.

Inspiration...big time.