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Tree Lines - Chapters Twenty-five through Twenty-eight

Chapters 1 to 4
Chapters 5 to 8
Chapters 9 to 12
Chapters 13 to 16
Chapters 17 to 20
Chapters 21 to 24
Chapters 25 to 28
Chapters 29 to 32

victoria falls

Chapter 25

African Interlude

We made it about half way across and stayed there, stuck, for four hours, as men and women alike tested their strategies and strength and knowledge of mechanical physics to no avail. Twilight and storm clouds began to gather, making it less amusing to be some twenty miles from shelter in territory ruled by major mammals.

 

Chapter 26

Post Parliament

The light never fades but we often move away toward darkness as we learn whatever it is that we have to learn again.  But knowing that, it eventually becomes easier to laugh our way home.

woods camprona michigan
geneva swan

Chapter 27

Other Strands

Pain collapses our focus inward but when we relax, even momentarily, our self- centeredness -- that sense (rarely consciously admitted) that we are the most important elements in this moment – we approach epiphanies that transform who we are.

Chapter 28

Connections

If a magnificent pine had not fallen in a primordial forest, the eagle’s altered path would not have jarred loose the fragment of the last flower standing even in December in spite of wind and frost. And someone’s deep sorrow would not have been eased by its sweet sad fragrance.

mountains and pine trees