What if you could..

What if you could have the long slow summer days of a child.... what would you give?

I thought about it...  should I make money or live life..

Should I inhabit my world "now" or wait till I had the money to retire then be free to do as I pleased...........

Then I understood the false promise of the hope and dream for something I already had...

Work 20 years... retire and do all those things you wanted to do as a young man.....but now today... give us your irreplaceable time...give us you strength, give us your wit, your drive, your creativity....give us the only thing of value in the world...... time..

I decided.. the days would be long.. the slow glide of my canoe across a lake.. spring days becoming weeks, drifting into summer...summer into fall....

Days swimming.... fishing.. harvesting mushrooms and plants according to season... nothing wasted.. canning and drying...dragging my traps out of the lake, a diet of crawdads and perch every few days a turtle and jokes about hill-billy canned goods.. ...

The hunt, the stalk.. a single shot and a cooling carcass....

Fairy rings and shafts of light through a green canopy
As quiet as a cathedral..

The whir of humming birds darting here and there..
The only sound...

Dust motes floating, hanging in the air
The whirr again.. the bright flash

Eye to eye with the keeper of the holy
No words to say... a hand extended
And the wee thing takes his rest..

Then whirrs back to his business..

The only sound in a fairy world..

I move...silently wool hunters giving no sound
No keys, no change, no lose straps..

The business of the hunter..

No scent except pine forest, wood smoke and gun oil...

I remember...

The line of a deers back standing out in the trees....
As I move closer, closer and closer still..

Putting distance between self and holy place..
No longer trembling before the hidden..

Now the hunter.... closer and closer still
The deer drops his head to pull at the grasses

I step.. nearer each time...

The shot wont miss.... a dozen yards.
A literal stones toss...
I see the eyes slowly shuttering closed..

And fire....

There is no chase, no blood trail..
It was a thing done before the weapon was raised..

The fast sure work of the knife...
And nothing wasted....

Money really doesnt answer my life
And never has.....

The days went on.....

I made the right choice......

My days are long and.. I know what I know....