Your words arrived in a small, neat package…

and I knew they weren’t meant to be unveiled in an ordinary way or shut indoors,

so I stowed the words away on a dusty shelf, and I waited…

Until the time came that I knew: this was the day.

So I ventured out, beyond the safety of my four walls, and I visited a place I’ve wanted to go for so many moons, but hadn’t yet…

And first, I just walked & breathed & looked around with awe and wonder…

I smelled the sweetness of flowers in bloom, and I paused to listen to sounds of rushing water in a creek, and I felt cool breezes kissing my cheeks…

I walked until I found just the right spot… a quiet place, a clearing, surrounded by tall, mighty trees…

Then I kicked off my sandals & felt the cool, damp grass beneath my feet for a spell, before settling down & pulling out your book of tiny prayers…

Feathered friends sang to me from those tall trees, as the words soaked in… and I saw that place you describe—where the treetops & the sky meet—because I was there…

Exactly where I was meant to be.

And I read…

I smiled when the words were dreamy, and my eyebrows furrowed when the words made me think, and go inward…

Sometimes the sun would peek out from behind the moody, gray clouds & it would shine down on me, warming my skin as I turned pages…

I paused, feeling my heart beating faithfully in my chest, as I breathed,

Feeling gratitude, for the simple loveliness

of being outdoors,

under this moody, gray sky

with a book & an open heart.

And in this moment, feeling our two hearts beating, in time—just as you would’ve dreamed it—with your words connecting all the wild ones, scattered over this silly, spinning rock…

And when I reached your ‘lil love note for the mamas, my heart leapt into my throat, and tears spilled from my eyes, as a warmness ballooned inside my chest…

So I set books & spectacles aside, taking a moment to just sit… and breathe…

and scrawl a few words of appreciation—

for shared words,

and for wild, beating hearts…

and the exquisite beauty of nature…

and this moment.

4/21/15

Relephant Read:

Heart Roar: A Book of Tiny Prayers. 

Author: Yoli Ramazzina

Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Author’s own.