"Aspiring atop a hill.

You watch anxiously as winds carry your craft as far up to where the eagles soar.  

This had been a hard but rewarding journey. And now cheering with high spirits you welcome any applause. But time keeps going and those same winds that carried you this distance start to fury.

Your eyes see danger being built afar. A stormy horizon cracks with lightning, breaking the bliss.

Darkness grows as do your fears. 

The harmony of everything you hoped for and sought after was starting to diminish. You fear losing. The fright is on your face. The scare is in your eyes.

Soaring with eagles are no more. They are gone with the wind. Now, a flight to escape must be the only way to survive. 

Your craft being too fragile and too troubled during storms as such, it's sails had collapsed. And already you grasp for something. Anything. Just a sliver of what you had. 

A blowing shock nocks you off your feet. 

Tumbling down with you is everything you had; Your vessel, your things, and a collection of clumsy knowledge you had discovered.

You claw, you scratch, grabbing only fistfuls of air. With pity you fall lower and lower beneath the clouds of ruin.

Bracing for impact or whatever is to come next. Your eyes close and you grimace. You thought you had heard a voice. But your wallow of pity blocks out everything. 

You hear the voice again,  nearly a whisper. 

"Believe." It said.

You feel a stir around you. In the depths of dark defeat what else is a person to do? You whisper back that same word you had faintly heard. The stirring continues and you keep reciting that one word. 

Now you can't hold it any longer. You say it out loud, "I believe!" Joy springs in your heart and you free your eyes from that confined darkness. 

In front of you,  you see opportunities, freedoms, and peace. Their limits having no end. Realizing your grasp now is not of just anything. It's of something solid, bold, and confident. 

It's something that won't move. It's sails won't be torn away by a storm. Lightning won't shatter it’s bliss. And the winds will only grow it’s strength.

You smile because it's all you can do."

• Image taken 5 years ago in KS at sunset