Day: November 29, 2023

My dream was that a hole appeared in the center of my bed, and I fell through….no…rather I was sucked into the hole and went down, down and down. Ever decreasing in size as I free fell through layers of reality, and universes of knowledge.

During that time, I learned everything there was to know, and forgot it all. Over and over again.

I went “splat” as I finally hit the “bottom” after plunging at high speed for what seemed to be an eternity

“Am I at the end?” I asked

“Yes” answered a tiny, almost imperceptible voice

“…but you’re also at the beginning” it boomed deafeningly.

And I woke up.

As much as I enjoy my morning forays through the neighborhood, my preference would be to walk in the woods…or along a path like the one in Ringgold which winds through the woods and alongside South Chickamauga creek. Some of my most cherished memories from my childhood are of the long, solitary walks I took in the woods around my Grandparent’s house.

I would go up behind their house one day, and hike the old logging roads that were long abandoned. You could smell the sweet rot of the stumps left behind, and hear the deer walking through the hardwoods just barely rustling a few leaves as they crept by. The squirrels, angry at my intrusion, would bark their shrill call at me wanting nothing more than for me to leave them and their peaceful existence.

I could go across the creek the next day and go beside my great Uncle Larks house and climb one of the trails up the side of Johnny mountain as far as I dared to go. There were rugged rocks on that mountain and I never made it to the very top. I come back down and roll up my pants legs and put my bare feet in the creek that ran in front of Grandpa’s house. Those were good days, and I had a lot of them. I’d always lallygag along, looking for arrowheads, or other interesting rocks, stopping often to sit on a log and just listen to the sounds around me.

I wondered as I walked this morning, how much longer I’ll be able to do it. I wondered at my age, what things do I really want?

I’d like to see another Winter’s snow, and be able to frolic around in it with my grandkids. I’d like to see another warm March day with the daffodils peeking their yellow heads out of the ground. I’d love to have another tomato sandwich from a vine that I grew, with Mayo and crispy bacon. Another Fall day, with golden and yellow leaves covering the mountainside. I’d like to see as many of those as I can. I’d really love to know that my grandchildren and their children will have a chance to enjoy the same things at some point in the future after I’m just a memory.

I wish that people would realize very soon that this Mother Earth we live on is not an inexhaustible resource. She is a very finite entity which is quickly being used up by the billions of humans who inhabit her. Used up and abused by those who value money over any other thing. By people who are not willing to forego a little convenience in order to give our descendants a chance at a life in the natural world. People who’s idea of nature is drinking some “Natural spring water”

I really hope humanity can produce some real heroes in the near future. I hope they can produce some leaders who care more about people, than about lining their pockets with “dirty money”. Maybe that’s a pipe dream. Maybe it’s never going to happen, knowing human nature. Maybe, just maybe it will though.

I’m going back out in the morning if I can, and every time I can…to chronicle what we have now. Photos may be all the future residents of this world may have one day to remember what “used to be”.