133--Up

Not sure what it is about waterfalls. Dawn asked. I know that my favorite body of water is a river. The ocean is too expansive and mysterious, too treacherous for me. A river (usually) has shores within sight of one another. I don't like lakes because they just sit there, large and deep and mucky at the edges, neither going somewhere nor even free of land. Oceans are over-big but at least you can journey to a strange country across their surface. Cross a lake and you end up in a place you could have walked or driven to.

Any way, I like rivers. They affect the shape of the world they encounter in ways that are noticeable within my lifespan. I can see them chiseling, shaping, forming. Dynamic, but not expansive, that's what I like about rivers.

Dawn's favorite body of water is a puddle. How fun. How playful!

I came here to see the water fall, and I see so much else. Like a new tree growing in the foreground of a felled stump. New life emergent from old death. Green over brown.

Not really a safe move, climbing to the top of the falls, but something drew my gaze upward. I think of the opening of Psalm 121, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills, where my help comes from."

I was intrigued when someone pointed out that those words are credited to David, the most powerful man in his culture at the time of said writing. What does the most powerful man on earth see up on the hillside? Maybe I should get up there and take a look?

This was a one-hand-on-a-root, body-hanging-sideways-over-space, hold-out-the-camera-and-click shot. Not safe by any means.

You gotta die of something. Might as well be living. Ok, but for real, there was a moment I got up on a rock and could only hang where I was, couldn't think of a way to move up and couldn't see how to get back down, so I hung there for a minute or two feeling all the way around until my left hand discovered a rock covered with earth that made for a solid hold.

Fine, next waterfall I'm taking a rope.

Goodnight, Beautiful...

Goodnight, Strender