GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN!

Here in the Ozarks, we’re blessed with all variety of fascinating flora and fauna, among them the seed tick and his kissing cousin the chigger. They’re uncommonly gregarious little creatures, and remarkably affectionate.  At some point during today’s wanderings I evidently became the unwitting host for a gaggle of the amorous little vagabonds,    and the encounter has left me tormented and broke out head to toe with countless hickies, each one demanding my undivided attention and assuring that I will undoubtedly remember today’s encounter with a good deal of passion well into the foreseeable future.  SC

AS IF TO TOUCH THE VERY FACE OF GOD

Some nights we’d lay there in the stillness, with the North Pacific rolling beneath the deck, and the only sound you’d hear would be the rhythmic beating of your own heart. You could almost hear the pulsing of your own blood, as it flowed within the channels of your veins.  It was as though you sensed the waning of your own life, as the minutes and the seconds of existence ran their course and ticked away. 

   On these cloudless nights the stars were bright as campfires in the snow and thick as sparks when you stir a fire at night.  Sometimes the moon had a golden ring, and if the moon were full, the sea glowed with a green translucence as its teaming fathoms rolled beneath our bow. On more than one occasion as we drifted in calm, we’d float along in the midst of resting whales.  You could hear their steady breathing, and once in awhile they’d blow, or a whale would roll and a giant leviathan arm, would reach up into the moonlight just as though it were in prayer, as if to touch the very face of God.  OBIE’S QUEST

I hesitate to get any happier, for fear I might herniate something!

SC

WANNA BE HAPPY?

Am I happy?  Why, I’m happy as a bug on the bow of a boat!  Have ya ever watched a grasshopper at the bow of a boat, when the ol’ steamer is churning along at a good clip, the hull is pounding the cobalt blue water into a fine spray and the shore is sailing by; and that ol’ grasshopper is clinging to the railing for dear life, his little antennae are trailing in the wind, his molars are all catching sunlight, his eyes are glazed over and glistening in grateful satisfaction, and the tobacco juice is streaming out the corners of his mouth and collecting in his whiskers and his ears?  Now that’s happy!

I've posted the first 18 chapters of Obie's Quest to this blog. Just click the year 2012, then the month February, and then scroll down to the post of February 13th.  Once you've read through chapter 8, simply click OLDER POSTS to read chapters 9 through 18.  Smile and be happy!

Elie & me

Sunrise, sunset; sunrise, sunset,

Swiftly fly the years.

One season following another,

Laden with happiness & tears.