Tonight as I walked  ….. it seems…..  I was very much all by myself on the road.  No beings of any sort.  There were no country noises.  It was quiet and still.

I could have been the only one in the world, at that moment.  At least, that is what it felt like.

But.  I knew I wasn’t.

And then I started thinking about all those who may have walked along this path before me.  An old farmer… 100 years ago.  Carrying an ax in hand… out to chop wood.  Wearing a weather worn pair of overalls, and a hand sewn flannel shirt.

Or an Indian woman, 5,000 years ago.  She was carrying a bunch of wild berries back home.  She had been out picking the last of them for the season.  Winter would be coming soon.
And on that day….. what did she think about?  Who was she going home to…. on that evening, so very long ago?

Three hundred years ago… a soldiers boot.

Ten years ago… a child skipping along…. and singing a farmer in the dell.

But all of us ….. on this same path.  Where my feet now touched the ground.  In those long-ago-footsteps.  How many more before?  Each with their own lives, and thoughts, and feelings.   And how many after?

And I stopped and drew in a deep breath, of all that was around me.  It smelled like autumn leaves, and cut grass, and unknown notes of nature.  I looked down, and saw this tiny grasshopper on the field corn.

I realized at that moment, there is so much we do not see.  So many things we do not know.  So much behind us, and so much to come.

And the only place, we can truly be… is in this single moment.

“And the only place, we can truly be… is in this single moment.” – Alan Watts