Meet the guardian. It inhabits what some see as an old stump beside one of the beautiful trails in Cliff Gilker Park. Everyday my best friend Pancho and i pass by the guardian and stop for a moment to give our thanks for the park, for the flora, fauna, microbes, minerals, fairies, forces and Gaia herself. We try to stop often to give thanks to Beauty for the sparkle leaping about in the flowing water. We give thanks to the songs of the birds, the drumming of the woodpeckers, and the laughter of the kids swinging in the playground.There's always so much to give thanks for, the squirrels who chirp at us as we pass who in storing their seeds are also planting the trees through which the wind whispers it secrets. The creeks meander slowly carving the landscape endlessly transporting the nutrients and sediments from the snowy mountains above while babbling their story, our story, our shared history future and past.
There's the ball fields where my daughters and their friends played softball and soccer on warm spring evenings and cold wet winter afternoons. The cheers of the parents and friends still echo in my memory. There's the fraternity of dog walkers whose friendship i cherish. There's so many things it's impossible to name them all individually. So many intertwined and interdependent, so many who each without the other ceases to be. So Pancho and i give thanks everyday for the moments we spend in Clif Gilker, for the moments we see, hear and feel the one life that we all share. We give thanks to the guardian for blessing the park and all who pass through her with the one love, the one heart, the one breath we all share.
