My Mountains

From a front window this early afternoon...I see on the sidewalks below...women with their arms and legs bare...having come
out of their winter and spring hiding...to welcome the heat wave we're in...as men in t-shirts show off their muscles and
saunter slowly along. It is the mountains...however...stretching wide above all that...that pull my eyes upwards...as they always have. Today...the sky above them is blue...and under a light blue haze...they are stll boldly outlined. I am a lucky man
to have them to look upon every day of my life...weather permitting. Sometimes when its raining they disappear behind thick
grey cloud cover...and I miss them...but remember that they are still there...and soon I'll be able to see them again. My
mountains are much more than something I send pictures of to friends or relatives living in flat places...or point out to visitors to my home as soon as they arrive. In the time I have lived facing them across the way...they have been much more than that...offering me consolation at low times in my life...pointing out to me that whatever I am going through...they have
survived through countless similar ones lived...by the prisoners of emotion...at their feet...that they know the secret of always
sending out their power...but never losing it...that they were there long before human habitation came close to them...and
are likely to go on...after those below them have come and gone. When I've gone on trips to eastern Canada...I have felt their
absence strongly...and cannot wait to look upon them again. At times they have become the deciding factor in any debate I have with myself about travelling far afield. My mountains...are my friends and my guardians...my bringers of perspective...at times when I've lost it...the ones who on my journey...help me... to keep "a measure of detachment"...as problems arise...
circumstances change...and people come and go...and to reach for a higher place...as I walk my walk...
wingless...in the valley below them.................Quester.