Reconcile

Winter started with an arctic blast, a hard fast freeze that came out of nowhere and fell like an executor's axe. No rain to slake the thirsty earth, just styrofoam snow and knives of ice that quickly evaporated in the frozen bone dry. Now fog fills the valley to the brim and we wander cold, chapped and thirsty. It's January and California is burning. Signs and wonders my friend.

That just about sums up the last couple of weeks for me. How are you?

We float in this fragile bubble of water vapor, this amniotic sac of atmosphere. We poison our mother from within the womb.

 A reckoning is coming. It must, it will,  it always has. Each of us must face the reaper, of that there is no doubt. And, no-one knows what lies beyond the wall. Some say they know, believe it as a bedrock fundamental fact. I know this: not everyone can be right The Christians think the Jews are going to hell, the Jews think the Muslims are going to hell and ad infinitum. The Hindus say we're in for endless rounds of reincarnation, the Buddhists say that all is illusion.  If one of the major religions is right, everybody else is wrong.  Either most of them or all of them are in for a surprise.

I believe what I see. Is there a world beyond my senses, a reality that my puny human consciousness can't comprehend? Probably. Should I aspire to comprehend?  Maybe.

I aspire to comprehend that which I see, touch experience,  that which I can affect. My senses, my experiences, my body, brain and heart, these are the tools I was given and they are too good to squandor. 

The sky doesn't care if I worship Jesus or study quantum physics. The pitiless sun rises in the south. The long hot summer's coming, bringing drought,  famine,  pestilence.What was that fourth horseman again? Oh right: war.

Can we reconcile our petty differences while there's still time?

Will I see you again before the end of the world?