Episode 103. Going Out in Style
Things were thinning out, becoming almost transparent. When he looked at his topographical map for guidance over the ridges and valleys remaining between him and the coast, the best route would jump out as if highlighted. When the fog rolled and the view disappeared, he stayed in camp and did the meditation that Gesso had recommended, one in which the idea was to rest in what the Tibetan teacher called 'the original nature of your mind'. It was during this resting, with his campfire as the focal object or sometimes the fog, that his thoughts slowed and had so little substance that he felt he was looking through them, that a door was opening up to somewhere that had always been there but that he had never quite acknowledged or fully perceived.
Even when he broke camp and moved on, the stillness was such that the walking was much like the sitting. The trails, the trees, the wind, the rain, everything he encountered appeared in the way of a dream that he knew he was dreaming, that therefore wasn't entirely convincing.
At the same time, the presence of his late wife, his beloved Bertie, stole upon him till he could have sworn she had climbed out of his heart just to go on this hike, till she seemed just as real as anything else in the dream.
Finally they resumed their conversation.
"Why are you crying?" she asked him.
"Oh Bertie," he said. "They're tears of joy, that's all."
Hand in hand they came into the open in a field one afternoon where the sun was spotlighting, of all things, a car lot, and in particular one car.
"Now Bertie," said Little Mac, "We're almost there, and I for one think it's time we acquired some new wheels."
So they went and they got in the indicated vehicle and soon enough, of course, a salesman came along to ask how he could help them on this gloriously sunny day and were they of a mind to rightfully go down the road in this here chariot fit for royalty.
"I think there is no doubt," said Little Mac. "No doubt at all."
(to be continued)
13 December 2018
Texas Jim
Linholme, near Redwood Valley, California
www.granitecoast.ca