July 2, 2014… I was leaving Davenport, Iowa, after having spent a few day with my Son and his wife. It had rained the night before, one of those huge storms that come across the prairies, dumping huge amounts of water and leaving everything soaked.
I got up and left Steve and Jo’s house early. I was riding my motorcycle, in full expectation of a long ride filled with wind and sun. I knew it would be a long ride but that was fine with me. My mind would have the freedom to wonder. I needed to be home by seven there was a picnic that I was suppose to attend. It would be a nine or ten hour ride or that was my thought.
It had rained the night before… several days in fact so the are was so fresh.
Rivers were flooded…
The ditches were filled with running water….
I was driving down through Iowa….
Down the back roads because I despise interstates…
An orange sign with big black letters stood in the middle of that asphalt track…. “High Water” it read. Well just how high was my thought, so I steered around the sign and road on. Left then right slightly down and sure enough … dark rushing watered covered my trail home. Turn around rethink the route (who needs a gps). Pull out the map look for another back road adventure that moved me in the right direction.
The black asphalt race up at me as I continued to wind around Iowa meandering my way home. More orange signs… this is not a good sign! Water …. everywhere and it seemed angry about being forced out of its banks. I sat on the bike reaching for the map and once again scoured over the gray lines hoping to find yet another route. Slowing I begin to realize I would most like not make the picnic. There would be disappointment. I had stayed and extra day in Iowa against the requests from home.
I was a bit dazed… from all the detours, but the air was fresh, and the smell of green grass freshly cut… was nearly intoxicating.
Frustration was in my soul… my mind wandering about who would I offend by not being here… and yet this simple journey home had turned into an adventure a story. I felt like a little boy … !
I downshifted and rolled to a stop in front of a detour sign. I could see the little town, but the bridge was covered with water. So right it is and I followed the signs winding through the little Iowa town … I don’t even know the name of the town. Just somewhere, no where in Iowa.
I pull in at a gas station in nowhere Iowa….
I fill up the bike…
Get a cup of old coffee…
I stand and talk to the old guys discussing how it had been years since the river had been out of its banks….
I finally walk over to this old bench and sit down,
Open up the map and start recalibrating my journey… again!
Now it is a reality … I’m not going to make it home for the evening picnic….
This puppy comes running over sniffing, licking, nipping at my fingers….
I’m suddenly aware…I am alone…the old guys had climbed into their respective pickups and drove off to have another look around
The map, the puppy, the coffee…
The lot was vacant ….
The road was empty…
Remember no interstate… I’m on back road’s
I look out over the drive and across the road and I suddenly aware of how the meadow, green lush, freshly drenched, spreads out like a newly laid carpet over the dropping landscape in front of me… it was spotted with yellow wild flowers and it fills my vision… runs out toward the base of the hills which rise up to the beautiful sun filled blue sky… it’s like a painting, a movie picture, a post card… exquisite, glorious, soothing….
Then I hear it…. every insect, bird, the breeze…
The whole scene was ALIVE AND AWESOME!!!
I have never seen anything so glorious…
Iowa… I forgot…
I looked up to the huge chunks of floating clouds…
Only last night they had been filled with rain, dark and threatening, but now white as cotton… just sitting there. Smiling at the deposit they had made on the fields below.
My mind has been a blank slab of black asphalt for hours… filled with a hurriedness, distracted by the goal of getting home… but now!
I set my coffee beside me on the bench….
I smell the wind…
I pat the puppy…
I watch the clouds….
The air is cool…
The puppy’s skin is warm….
I am alive… more alive than all the world.
This is it I think… this is it!
Right now,
this present moment,
this empty gas station…
this Iowa country side…
this coffee
this puppy
And the second that I think that… I lost it!
Puppy is still playing
Coffee still warm
I realize that what separates me from the Creator, from life… is my own self-consciousness
That door….
That great door… of life had opened for a moment and I knew
I was ALIVE….
I want to live FULLY ALIVE….
(maybe I will have to ride back through Iowa)
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