by Don Haslett

Created on: November 02, 2008

Sometimes truth is found through wonder. It is there in the half-light under a canopy of an old pine forest. The heady spice of the pines fills the lungs and lies on your tongue and you are held as if spellbound by pure beauty. A cuckoo's cry hopes to echo in the trees, but is muffled and brought down by the outstretched boughs and the thick carpet of last year's needles covering the forest floor. Bathed in the calm of almost primeval solitude it is impossible to be lonely or sad because you are profoundly of the moment, an essential piece of the moment, and in this nothing may intrude as there is only the sweet certainty that it is wonderful to be alive. Free your mind enough to shake off the usual day to day concerns and allow yourself to focus only on here and now. Your spirit will flow out to taste as much as you will allow and when you pull it back you feel at peace. This is a truth of the world.

Truth is sometimes thrust upon us through pain. It can be found at the bedside of a loved one who lies thin as if starved, and fearful of tomorrow. Her warm, sunken eyes search for signs of hope in your face, as this time hope is better than truth. But as you stroke her shrunken hand you are gripped and almost physically shaken by the inescapable knowledge that but for the grace of God your places could easily be exchanged. And there is no blame for your vigor any more than there is for her suffering through this wasting ordeal one more time. And the truth is not that she may never leave this room, nor is it that today is only a bump in the road and of course she'll soon be as good as new. The insistent truth is that we cannot know what tomorrow may bring. The truth is that right now we are here. Right now I am here. Right now I am me and I am here and I don't know what I am supposed to do or feel and that is probably what life is, not knowing but still moving forward. There is little comfort in it, but this is a truth of the world.

Most often we find truth in the little things. The happy gurgle and coo of a reaching toddler who has discovered the colorful motion of a butterfly that has lit upon a nearby branch or flower. We smile at the tumble and yip of a black Lab puppy swatting a clumsy oversized paw at our hand. We remember the perfect sunset or the delicious fragrance of honeysuckle on a warm summer breeze. These all show us the truth of the world, and in this we do not lose our hope.

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