A Year In Sedona: Epilogue

                                                                          

Passage To Summerland
Watercolor on Paper by Melanie Lee

                                                   

Passage to Summerland

Our guide was a Trickster

who always smelled skanky

we held our hanky

discreet to nose

 hoping fair winds

would deliver us gladly

from  armpits gone badly.

 Asses in gear sweeties!

Trickster yelled with abandon

Sashay up that hill, 

sidle over those humps.

 I  see ya, I gotcha

    now don't be a goose 
just look out for the bumps.

                                                                           

Darkling lowlands now behind,

ascent ground on blind

through smokey webs and blackened barbed wire.

Came a lonely blue valley with dusty red fire 

hosanna, we  fell on our knees in surrender

 to a large happy lemon

                                                       oozing hope from a blender.                                                                                                                                                                                

 Noon blazed high

when the end burst in sight,

 resurrection stood by

 Trickster shone in the light.

Fresh shirt, sweet pits

 cleaned up right smart as 

 lilacs from heaven bloomed out his heart.

                                                          Let go of my hand dears

he said with a wink

 I know what you think 

but I'm merely a link.

  That yellow? That mirth?

Pay homage to Summerland,

you're now guests on earth.

.

 

Prayer For Dwellers In Possibility       

Deliver us we pray, from the company of sad and contentious spirits.  We're looking for happy souls now, yes we are. Lead us, push us, pull us to those hallowed places of mystery and beauty where we can find the things that really matter. Take us for a walk at dusk among the strong, stark and often strangely seductive native plants and birds of the high desert. Thank you for the things that we've found that have enchanted and inspired. 

Remind us that the way of calm, peace and enjoyment isn't something to hold on to only for ourselves alone. Let us practice the sharing that is the dessert of life. With family. Cats. Grocery store clerks. Drivers on the road. Fellow writers, artists, musicians and yogis all over the world. Sweet seekers and friends who've found the truth of it all. 

And at the end of the day tell us again what we need to remember: That residing in peace can be learned,  like any skill, with a little  instruction and some disciplined practice. Surrender, sit, breathing in, breathing out, breathing up, breathing down. Honoring the holy. That we can always find the place where the special favors, gifts and shining mercies reside. Right here, right now and for what is yet to come, Yes!