A secret place...

“Clouds are not the cheeks of angels you know,

they’re only clouds – friendly sometimes,

but you can never be sure.”

Rod McKuen – Pushing the Clouds Away

The clouds were white and billowy – shape shifters really…

As they drifted across the azure blue sky, they became whatever his mind created.  At first the humped back of a camel slowly emerged and just as slowly transfigured into an elephant’s head, a trunk forming and pushing out like the end of a fire hose.  The trunk became the arm of a pitcher just beginning to throw a ball. 

They were just clouds to anyone else, but to a young boy with some time to kill and a vivid imagination, they were as exotic as his mind could create.  That’s the thing about a mind cleared, devoid of thought…it gives permission to one’s imagination to slip into the ‘driver’s seat.’

Creative beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Yes indeed.

As he lay on the dock a few inches above the surface of the water, he closed his eyes and listened to an ancient rhythm…water slapping against the edges of the wooden platform jutting out into the lake – the sun of those August days in the Muskoka District of Central Ontario, warming his skin…comforting his heart.

There is something seductive about the rhythmic sound of water against a dock or lapping along the shore. There is no beginning…no end.  It is as if one has slipped into a concert hall – music in progress – and become captivated by the moment of the ‘what is.’  There is the sense that it has always been, and in the isolated silence of that sound there is comfort…safety…a union of sorts with the unknown, and at the same time, a primal understanding of a living connection to the universe.  A cocoon of quietness enveloped his soul…no fear…no time.

The quieter he became, the more he heard…

If there truly is such a thing as magic, this was a magical time…an era really.  He had been doing this every summer for more than a decade, and he would do it for more than a decade to come.

For young boys, nothing is impossible – little is demanded, so they pursue whatever comes to mind…whatever catches their attention…whatever drives their imagination.

Things change…

A lot happened in the life of that boy in the decades after those ‘dock lying’ years…a lot of things happened.  Everything seemed busier, priorities shifted and life got complicated.

There was school finish, war to experience, work to do, people to meet, places to go, There was music to play, marriage, a home, family, a spiritual community…much to do…so much to do.  One might say he was overtaken by busy-ness, a lot of busy-ness.

The good news, however, is that no matter how great the demands of life, that young boy remained resilient.  Sometimes it seemed he was hiding; occasionally, it seemed like he had disappeared…lost – forgotten. His voice and wonder stolen by some “…thief in the night…” Then he would emerge again with all the enthusiasm, curiosity and imagination that had drawn him forward into life.

Things remain the same…

This evening as the sun moved westward toward its resting place just past the Pacific horizon; Hannah and I sat on the patio in the back yard, grateful for another day.  To be fair, I was sitting – she lay with that distinct and apparently contented ‘Zen look’ cats get, making you wonder whether in fact, they do understand the universe….

The humming birds were sipping dinner from the flowering tree across the yard…the birds chirping as they slipped into their nests after successfully gathering their “…daily bread…”

The sky was azure blue as I closed my eyes, got quiet and slipped into my mind.  It came gently as it had done so many times before in that secret place.  “I lay on the dock a few inches above the surface of the water…and listened to an ancient rhythm…water slapping against the edges of the wooden platform jutting out into the lake – the sun of those August days in the Muskoka District of Central Ontario, warming my skin…comforting my heart.”

I felt the smile cross my face as that comforting scene unfolded.  The young boy returned and I knew he was safe.

- ted