Hope is the wild ride between peace and fear.
I wrote “hope is the wild ride between peace and fear,” in a sketchbook-journal about 18 years ago. I’d just used the last of our gas money for that month to get to a woodsy waterfront retreat where we’d spend three days with other Quaker families, and I was more than a little stressed about taking time away from my business. My now-adult daughter was off being a happy fireball of a preschooler. The sun was starting to go down, my back was aching and I sat on our cabin steps and told myself to relax and listen and be open.
I started to draw the late afternoon sky. Though the air was very still nearby, the clouds on the horizon were moving and building. I paused, enjoying the sound of children’s laughter floating through the trees, and these words came to me: hope is the wild ride between peace and fear.
The sensation was as if an angel had laid a hand on my heart.
Now, I’m not much for humans laying down absolutes about what exists or not in the metaphysical or the hereafter or any form of great beyond – I try to leave that to whatever exists more over there, not to those of us who live in the physical here and now. However, I also don’t hold with looking a gift horse in the mouth.
I wrote it down and waited for more, or not more. Just being there was almost enough.
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December 8th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Great post…only a little disappointed not to hear more of the story of the trip to and during the weekend at the woodsy waterfront retreat
)
December 8th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Keli, if I don’t get too shy, I have another to share tomorrow.
Thank you!
December 8th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I love this – I love that you share the significance of the quote – why it means something to you! Thanks!
December 8th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I think this is beautiful!
Thank you for sharing!
December 9th, 2008 at 8:49 am
It is indeed a very good quote. I’m liking the variety I’m starting to see here. I can tell that doing a review will be good fun.
December 9th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
It is bee-yoo-tee-full! I’m glad I saw this link from Plurk, ’cause you have really delivered with these words and what they express.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
The thoughts you share invoke images of riding out a Western Pacific typhoon aboard a 1939 vintage wild & untamed fast fleet oiler (USS Cimmaron) during mid-1967 … I assume PEACE includes peace of mind?
December 13th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
[...] Quote Snack Big thoughts; human-sized canvas « Hope is the wild ride between peace and fear. – Elizabeth Able [...]
December 14th, 2008 at 5:20 am
So glad you felt comforted when you needed comfort.