Inspiration

Friendly clouds accompanied me as I walked the neighborhood this afternoon. Against an azure backdrop, they repeatedly posed, shifted, and struck new stances: co-travelers on directed journeys.  I watched as these cotton balls came and went, creeping around large patches of open blue to shape uneven white frames, or else crowding each other to form dense, down blankets.  They seemed free, and yet not randomly, but with a kind of willing conformity.

A towering oak reached up and up, receptive giant-arms extended as if eager to grow far beyond its roots and discover a higher perspective.  I could sense life surge as its uppermost twigs nodded in the breeze, affirming that a leafy crown would soon stand as an intermediary between earthly reality and life beyond.