There are things in life ...

There are things in life
that you destroy by putting into words.

Like the flower you find in the forest
and do not bring home with you:

Even though,
in the glory of its final hours,
it would lend credibility to your story,
you leave it alone.

Even though
you are sure that no one else
would venture as deep into the same woods,
you leave it alone.

Even though
you feel that you may never again
find its equal,
you leave it alone.

You do all of this
because there are things in life
that must be lived.

And the living of them
is as important to these things
as your decent into the woods
is to the flower you find.

These things cannot be experienced any other way. Those who understand this also understand this other truth: that there never would have even been a flower except that someone looked for one.

Balloons!

Driving in to work this morning, I watched the balloons rise with the sun. I should say, rather, that I enjoyed the thought of them rising. We think of things like these rising, but our eyes tell a different story than our minds. It occurred to me then that if I ever wanted someone else to know what it was like to dance, really dance - and I mean someone who is not a dancer, fundamentally - I would take them up in a balloon. There, surrounded by the cool, clear air, we would watch the landscape spread out beneath us, and, even if our problems were the size of a house, we would watch them recede into the distance until they could be covered by a single hand. There, we would soak up the energy that comes with elevation and, as we descended again, we would know that we were carrying back with us something beautiful, something precious, something that had accepted its smallness and its impermanence as prerequisites for something greater than itself.