First the Pacific, wind whipping sand into my closed mouth, – leftovers from the Silurian – sea creatures that learned to live on black rocks streaked with red just outside the entrance to a cave walk- through to farther down the beach, eventually the sky unwrapping its blue like it always does on the coast, a few fluffy clouds thrown in for effect.

Later that week, after the tree-templed sequoia sojourn (picture me with a white nest in my hand, rain in the tree tops but not on the ground),  my first tarantula in the wild, as big as a small bird, sitting unafraid in the middle of Rt 180 at a bend – mountain on one side, ravine on the other – no safe space to be jockeying for a good picture on the road beside it, and onward to the Grand Canyon via Death Valley, small towns littering the route – us with no reservations, them with nothing but a one room post office – riding late into the night, watching shooting stars, being watched by coyotes that knew the equation of people and easy food, lone travelers in the middle of the desert (us and the coyotes).  “It’s an adventure,” he laughed and I did not laugh with him hoping for nothing more than a cool spot to lay my head – we found Mesquite, no food and it wasn’t cool but I lay down and slept, dreaming of big trees, colored rocks and a night sky of galaxies.

I wish I could step outside into one of the many worlds where I have stayed, wish they were to the left of me or to the right of me so that a small jog to the side put me in these magical spaces where I know that I and God are one, provisionally eternal, where I merge with all of the other necessary and beautiful animals, where we all keep walking, finding along the way all of the oceans just outside our doors.

***
originally done for a writing class assignment that said pick phrases out of the reading and use those as a jump off.  These are the phrases I chose:

Bridgette Byrd:  “The night unwrapped in blue,” ”a white nest grew in her hand, the sound of rain”

Jeffrey Skinner:  “I wish I could step outside into one of may worlds to the left and right of me;” “you can keep walking, and find all manner of things.  The ocean, for example is right outside the door.”

Alexander Long:  “When I was part of God, I was provisionally eternal;” “its own necessary and beautiful animal”