The Journey

 

It is not unlike

Climbing a mountain

Whose craggy peak

Is obscured

By clouds

 

Alone

And usually against

The advice of loved ones

Do you begin your ascent

 

Eventually

Your haste to reach the top

Teaches you

All steps are equally important

For the without the 13th step

The 13,000 step would not be possible

 

And you discover

It is not the elevation achieved

But rather the ability to arrive there

That is the prize.

 

Sometimes the climb

Is slow and easy

Other times, frustrating but then

Suddenly opening out

To Paradisical Plateaus

Which you initially assume

Must be your goal

 

But then you walk their Gardens

Eat their Fruit

Drink from their fountains

But know there is more.

 

And your eyes turn upward once again

And you climb

Passing towns of every indulgence and mortal pleasure

Each door beckoning you

Back to what was once familiar

 

Do not tarry in those towns

Or taste their food

Lest you grow fat and sleepy

Indeed, these towns are not filled with evil doers

Who whish to thwart your success

But rather souls

Exactly like your own

Who lost their focus

For just a moment

And erected these towns

Congratulating themselves hollowly

Upon acquiring such a spectacular view

 

Beware, if you pass their hospitality

You may raise their anger

For you to move forward

Picks at the wound they conceal

That never heals

That spoils their pleasure

In the dark

And fill their nights once again with fear

 

Invite all to join you

And go

For the fragrance of God

Tumbles down the cliff sides

And beckons you onward

Pulling you upward toward that

Which you seek

 

And then, quite unexpectedly

The clouds will clear

And you discover

You have not ascended a mountain at all

But rather descended

Within yourself

 

And your amazement

Only increases

As you sit at the feet

Of the lotus blossom of your soul

Beginning to bloom

And smell the sweet fragrance

Of God

Growing stronger

With each petal that unfolds

And you rest all that

You have carried up the mountain

As you sit at the blossom

Knowing

The show has just begun.....

 

 

                                   ---unAsleep