Through my "slit window", I'm watching today end. The sky to the southwest is cotton candy pink. Rainier is slowly pulling up her blanket of darkness ready for sleep. I see a lenticular cloud playfully floating near the summit...it looks like that nightcap illustrated in A Night Before Christmas...sweet dreams, my friend. As time marches on... "The tank" has changed composition...yet AGAIN! Now that my friend Allen is gone, I'm the "old man" - old in age and old in terms of "time in the tank"! There are youngsters in here today...twenty-somethings...mostly DUI charges. I notice it's getting easier and easier to isolate as days pass and friends continually leave, sometimes quickly, sometimes with a sense of expectation and farewells. Reading and writing and sleeping take up my 24 hours. Yesterday I was reading a book by John Lennon...just some of his poems, short stories and wacky doodles. One of the "youths" asked me what I was reading so I held up the book so he could see a photo of the Beatles troubadour along with his name. The young man asked me..."Who is John Lennon?" So is it true, you know you're getting old when the Fab Four have become obscure - HA!! Reading The Circle of Fire continues to comfort me. Thank you again to the person who sent it as a gift! It's become a treasure so do let me know who gifted it...please? I've gone through it a couple of times and I read the prayer several times a day. With few exceptions, each chapter seems to be talking directly to me. Today, as I re-read the part on humanity, I noticed a sentence I must have skipped over before. It reads: Let's make our love strong, and let's send our love to our homes, to whomever lives with us. Guess that would be my "tank-mates", my tribe! I find myself judging them most of the time. Okay...I'll send 'em love today. Love is the answer...did I hear John singing?? Just read an article about the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). It's in the news because of the movie, Wild. Excellent book by the way...read it when I was free and wandering the earth. Now I'm wondering if I could hike the piece of that trail from Snoqualmie Pass north to Mt. Baker. I would love to spend several days backpacking and nights sleeping under a darkened sky sprinkled with a dusting of stars.
Don Miguel Ruiz teaches that I was born a great magician, and with the gift of magic, I can create my personal story...my dream of life! So YES, I can hike The Pacific Crest Trail! That's what i choose... Another famous woman (not necessarily a hiker, I don't think?!) once wrote: You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. Dya' know her name??? I'll tell y'all next time...that's it for today!!
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AuthorPatrick Michael Leonard Archives
August 2020
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