Holding on? Maybe it’s time to let go. . .

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.
Hermann Hesse

(male flicker takes to the tree tops in search of something tasty / Julie Cook / 2015)

Perched somewhere high above indifference and stagnation,
we walk a tight rope stung across the gaping crevasse of demise and despair

A ravenous world beckons to the would-be high wire traveler,
traverse the hungry precipice it hauntingly implores

Seducing
Luring
Tempting

Wanting hands beckon.

Trembling and afraid, one foot, then two, we inch ever closer
To light?
No.
The way grows ever more dim
We edge our way closer to empty darkness,
No longer able to see the rope

Only darkness and emptiness stand before us
And what of below?
A hot wind whips up from beneath our feet
The wire sways as our arms instinctively flail and thrash

Vainly we frantically reach out seeking something firm for balance
Desperate
Fearful
Alone

Footing is lost
Balance gone
Grab the wire quick!
This being the last chance before certain death

Once we slip downward, deep into the abyss, there is no hope, no return
Hang on!
Maybe hand over hand in order to complete the journey?
Pain sears through bleeding hands
The wire cuts deep

Energy and strength are drained
Resignation
then, the final letting go

We begin to fall
Spiraling
Fearfully lost
When suddenly something, someone, out of the darkness, snatches us in mid fall

Redeeming Grace has grasped our flailing arm
Lifting us up
ever higher

The darkness fades as the heavens open
Chains worn once heavily, disappear down in the abyss
As the sun begins to warm frozen fingers

The cherubim and seraphim sing
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia
For one more child has joyfully come back home. . .

Clues

“There is always a pleasure in unravelling a mystery, in catching at the gossamer clue which will guide to certainty.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
“I don’t much care where –”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
― Lewis Carroll

The first clue shall be a backpack.
No, no, it has nothing to do with school, thank goodness.

Also, sitting by the backpack, there are a couple of airline tickets marked for a flight winging its way northward later this morning.

Then of course there is the business of business.
One member of this little team has work to do while the opportunity of adventure awaits teammate number two—albeit short and sweet.
We adventuresome types must take what we can get when we can get it!
We consider these shorter timed adventures, what we like to refer to as fact finding missions, an opportunity of building a dossier for later use during lengthier adventures.

There’s history, lots of history.
There was, at one point, an excessive amount of tea, or so I’ve been told.
There is the sea.
Not the ocean mind you or the beach, but rather “the sea and shore.”
There is the famous “chowda”
That whole oneth by land and toweth by sea, or is it oneth by sea and twoeth by land?
There’s the curse of the Bambino. . .if you’re into that whole curse thing. . .
And then there are beans—whatever beans have to do with it is beyond my soul, but they always speak of the beans.

Now these tantalizing little clues should be enough to whet your whistle while we gear up for a fun little weekend game of Where’s Cookie. . .

Yet on a more somber note, I would be amiss if I did not take pause imploring that we all offer up our heartfelt prayers for the families of those who have lost loved ones in yesterday’s tragic crash of Malaysian Flight 17.

May we also join our thoughts and prayers for the people of Israel and Gaza as once again that small corner of the world is perched on its tenuous precipice of life and death.

May we also remember the family of the wife and mother who was tragically killed yesterday in California as she was taken hostage during a violent bank robbery.

Thoughts and prayers for our fragile world . . .

Next stop. . .north by north east.