My safe place

   I would go the woods, looking for my father, who died forty years ago, and now lives in the roots of an old oak and talks to me through the leaves and casts his shadow in the light. There! a bird telling me in my father’s voice all is well and that in every tree and shadow and every winged thing I see is his promise to keep me safe. But, I say, what if there is no sun or winter comes or the trees die or the birds all fly away? What then? He says, you have much to learn about storms and the cold and the silence of a night where not even a bird sings.  Storm, winter and silence, all these will keep you safe as well.  All things are a comfort – that there is anything at all, and not nothing, is the first thing you must learn. You will understand more when you hear thunder and discover the lightning within yourself.  All is well.