Connecting
A Writer’s Thoughts and Feelings on a Journey to Shikoku, Part 5
Whirling like a dream-shaped cloud; viewed from above the whirlpools draw patterns of gentle destruction. They are riddles, fleeting, never to be solved. Between the masses of sleeping land, the waves ascend and wither.
Wasn’t there a story about a terminally ill girl who was taken out to Awaji-shima to walk into the sea and drown? The patterns are indeed inviting. To jump and then to swim. How long before the waves would swallow me whole and leave nothing but thoughts about what could have been if I had been a different person, perhaps adjusted, perhaps more daring. The waves do never know the answers; but sweetest pain brings comfort nonetheless.
And all the time the tides are shifting; they dance, they sing; they bring the gift of peace to slowly collapsing lungs.
I keep this thought for now. I will remember. For when (or if?) the time will come to accept their invitation.
Viewed from below the bridge is majestic; a creation that makes me wonder what I will leave behind when my journey is over. But this day is not here yet. Somehow my journey will continue. Even when I leave Shikoku. Even when I bid farewell to this archipelago and look at the stories that I told while it was home. Someday, maybe, I can become a bridge too.
Raptors are circling high above the sand. They are haunting the seagulls; they are haunting me. With feathers strong as pine trees.
Viewed from the beach, a view unobstructed; bathed in sunlight, music playing in my mind, the wind blowing, the water holding on to its secrets; is entering my eyes, my thoughts, my dreams, extracting teardrops from a well that still has not run dry, that still continues to feel safe within and by myself, reminding me that strength has many forms and that from whence I came a growing distance has been shaping me and led the way to Naruto.
March 2016
Part 1: Dreams as They Appear from Trains
Part 2: Whispering Naoshima
Part 3: Plum Petal Elegy
Part 4: In Hills, in Wonder
Part 5: Connecting
Part 6: Thus the Forests Murmur
Part 7: The Lies of the Mountains
Part 8: Glass Castle
Part 9: Farewell, White Mountain
