


I walked up the hill
past the old climbing tree
and down the path
into the woods.
There is a deep layer
of dead, brown leaves
from last year,
maybe several years.
They crunch under foot,
like walking through skeletons.
Yet, the buds on the trees
are swelling, greening.
This is not morbid,
it simply is
the way things are,
life and death together.
Perhaps
our insistence
on separating the two,
on fearing and denying death
is what’s abnormal.
I know this is supposed to be wordless, but I had to explain these two barn cats, Thor and Julio, decided to come for a walk with Otis and me yesterday! I feel like the ultimate crazy cat lady.
“Home is behind, the world ahead,
and there are many paths to tread…”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
“Tomorrow we may come this way,
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun”
― J.R.R. Tolkien