The Restoring Qualities of Water

The woods are thick
green darkness enveloping
as I continue onward
not knowing why
knowing only that I am being drawn.
I have this one blessed hour in the midst
of this long summer of service.
One brief hour to be solitary, and my own.

The trees end, and I enter in.
Disintegrating wooden benches flank
an old rugged cross.
Beyond, sparkling indigo blue
in the cool Alaskan light,
a lake undulates beneath
pale waning light of sky and sun.
Wind ripples the surface.
Sitka spruces stiffly stand sentry,
guarding their brilliant sapphire treasure
from marauding eyes and feet.

I breathe deeply, inhale
the pure, secret air
water, trees, glaciers, mountains
all lend their own distinctive note
to the complex aroma here.
I let it purify my insides.
Time stops and grants me grace for a moment.
I memorize every detail,
small waves lapping the shore
all that break the deafening silence.
Silence.

There are lessons here in the silence.
An inaudibly gleeful orchestra of beauty,
for starving eyes and souls to feast upon.
Isolation, with the incomparable companionship
of earth and God. And
Silence.