The perfect intricacy of it all.

 

Her right foot dangles in the water. She gives it a slow, easy kick, kick, kick.

The sun drenches her skin in warm light, honey-gold and petal-soft. She pictures it sinking down, down, down through her middle and into the earth below.  She turns to the turtles lounging on the rocks nearby, smiling. “Me, too,” she tells them.

The trees tower above, and she studies how they lean on each other just so. “What dear old friends they are,” she thinks.

She counts blades of grass and relaxes into reverie. Her thoughts always wander from this task, but she pays it no mind. Her sweet laughter, bright and joyful, echoes through the valley.

She spends the day in deep conversation with the wind, asking where it’s been and listening intently to its answer. She learns of the comings and goings in the rainforests and mountains and asks after the desert she once heard about on a television program.

She stretches her arms into the wind and asks it to lift her up, up, up. It curls around her fingers and sends her hair over her eyes. And she just reaches higher. “Send my love,” she tells it as it moves on.

 

 

“Come now,” she’ll say as she nudges your crossed legs. “Roll up those jeans and get your feet wet.”

 

 

She’ll cover your eyes. “Listen.”

 

You might hear a plane fly overhead, a bird, or maybe a dragonfly. You’ll hear the river flowing over your feet and falling over the edge of a distant waterfall.  Your breath and the soft beating of your heart will fill your ears, and you’ll wonder at the perfect intricacy of it all.

 

When you open your eyes, you’ll see something in her face you hadn’t before. The familiar wink, the almost crooked smile, the color in her cheeks.

 

She’ll catch you watching. “Hello, again.”