Feel, and Lose

Too many days you spend glued to your to-do list, staring out at perfect fall days on the mountain from behind a computer screen, this isn’t the way. I close the laptop lid, lace my sneakers, and set my sights on the trail. 

A few miles in, one garter snake, two steam trains, and a flock of pelicans at the shoreline below later, it was like something returned to me, something in the steps, in the miles, in the stories that appear when your body is too tired to do anything but continue. 

Later, the sun setting behind your open fire, the sun setting behind your glass of whiskey, the sun setting behind your better judgment, The words that make their way out creak from disuse and trample over your previous promises but they are out now.

You fall asleep under the Milky Way. All is as it should be.