This is Everything

by Julia RusinekThursday, August 29, 1996

This, I feel, is everything.
This river

Whose sound I know
I always long to hear
Though I am not aware
Of my longing until I hear it.

This beauty

The peachy white rocks
Peering out of the water
Like curious, lost children
The trees lining the shore
Standing by in expectation,
Anticipation, -- on guard.

This sky

Stained by clouds of gray
And midnight blue
The clear patches which scream to me
Of their openness, of their possibilities
Of endlessness and eternity.

...
This feeling
This wholeness

A tiny ripple in the water below me
Stirring up my insides
The wind whispering through my body
Caressing my soul
Arousing it from slumber of death

...
Life! Life!

It all seems so clear here --
What is mortal and what is not.