FOLLOWING MY SHADOW

“FOLLOWING MY SHADOW”

(September 1, 2009)

                                    
     I turned to face my own shadow...spread out upon that boggy expanse.

     Having wandered off the path and leaving the other hikers behind, I come to a strange looking wooden walkway.


     Why had this walkway been built in the middle of nowhere? 

    
     Carefully I tested the boards with my foot. Each board seems to give a little on the soggy soil that supports them. They bend, but they dodn't sink. Underneath them, a soggy bog waits to swallow them up and hide their destination forever.

     What is the purpose for this walkway? I wonder.  My curiousity is peaked; I creep forward, testing each step, wanting to descover this hidden destination. 

     The walkway turns away from the sun, winding in an easterly direction. My shadow walks beside me, over the bog and walkway-less. He is braver than I.

      Ok, I think. If my shadow is telling me he is brave, than I should follow.

      I trudged on, knowing I am heading into an unknown place.

      

      I can see, ahead of me, a tangle of trees that this precarious boardwalk leads to. They are hiding something.

 

      I approach the stand of willowy trees. They stand as if they are sentries that guard a hidden perimeter. I see a houseboat floating among a fort of bamboo trees and sprawling vines. 

 

      Nature was protecting this hidden find; a houseboat amid a bog.

 

      "Is anyone here?" I call out.

 

      My voice interrupts the songs of birds and the mating calls of crickets. No answer back.

 

      I enter the houseboat to discover its inner secrets.

 

      Water rats and opossums have built their homes inside. and removed human spaces in order to make them their own.

 

      I move slowly deeper inside the houseboat. My eyes roam about the inner recesses of this camoulaged animal den. Bog animals scatter when they discover they have an intruder. I don't want to disturb thier little paradise, and I turn to leave them. 

 

 

      I retrace my steps, and move a bit faster now that I knew the walkway will hold my weight.

 

      With my shadow in tow, I leave this discovery behind, knowing it is better without me. It had been a mini-adventure.  It remains as a picture in my mind...and I leave it undisturbed there.