feeling right

the hike and its moods

there comes a time
when I’m pulling up a slope,
and I’m in the rhythm,
legs and lungs working hard, and feeling right:

















I know myself and the mountain, and it is good,

in some ways such a time feels better than getting to the destination,
for at the waterfall, at the peak,








it is not just me and nature, body and challenge,
it is me with people,
people who can blunt the edge of my enthusiasm,
pull me back from transcendence into the mundane,
with my students I am called to work to help them find what they need,
with strangers it’s a crap shoot, and I can lose quite often,

the beginning of a hike is of will and doubt,
of assertion despite the challenge,
the end can be of pride, coupled with the sadness of moving past,
on the way up, on the way down,
I can glitch when I hope I’m somewhere, and I’m not,
so my fuss box turns over, and I am disheartened,
on the way down my feet often hurt,











my eyes want to close,
and I easily slip into my mind being elsewhere,
I like to call up when I felt most in the moment
and let that wholeness call me
to be more and more mindful of what feels right.

by Henry Walker
October 30, ’10