It is fun to look back at photos taken on the day’s date in another year. The photo created a collage of memories. The first was taken May 10, 2012 at Sugarite State Park in Cimmaron, New Mexico. The scene one month shy of the one year anniversary of the Track Fire that decimated the park.  As I sat on the stones I was drawn to the huge lake that sat in stillness before them as they burned. I recalled the news photos of helicopters with buckets grabbing water from the lake and pouring hope upon the burning hills. Buckets were not enough. The earth would have had to lift the lake and emptied it to quench that fire.  From that paradox my heart shuddered to feel the picture that seared my heart four months after the fire.

I’m not sure what the whisper is tonight. I began looking for pictures on today’s date. But I know the lake and earth were not, are not, impotent. Though different in energy and beauty, Sugarite returned. Only attachment to what was yields that distinction. Perhaps the whisper is the final image captioned by Rumi’s words, ” I would love to kiss you. The price of kissing is your life. Now my loving is running toward my life shouting, What a bargain, let’s buy it. ” Surrender to what is, to life, is not an end.