As Benjamin Franklin once quipped so long ago; there are 2 certainties in life...death and taxes. I would add a third...change.
Nothing stays the same. Time appears to flow in one direction only which is forward. It waits for no one as it is said.
This was on my mind the other day hiking down the Highline Canal Trail in Cherry Hills. I have hiked this trail hundreds of times noting the individual trees, stumps, rocks, bushes...you name it.
I walked this trail back in February of 2003 when I first moved to Colorado to live with my former wife. She had moved out from our home in Delavan, Illinois to Denver 6 months earlier.
As I was missing my life in rural Illinois where I used to hike the Rock Island Trail between the tiny villages of Dunlap and Wyoming, I decided to assuage my loneliness by hiking the Highline Canal Trail which parallels the canal once dug by an association of farmers and ranchers in the Denver area for the purpose of irrigating their fields and livestock.
As I ambled into Colorado in August of 2014 after hiking across the Great Plains from Illinois I began to settle down, first in Denver then in the mountain town of Idaho Springs.
Being restless as usual I have hiked in the flat lands as well as in the mountains. That's what I do. I hike. Invariably, I work through things and issues by placing one foot in front of the other. It's how I deal with the vagaries of life.
And, every time I hike the urban trail along the Highline Canal I notice a cottonwood here and locust there are missing. Most are cut down or fall down of their own accord due to rot or disease or both.
I also notice houses along the way have been remodeled or that a different family has moved in altogether. Where once in the backyard there was a Jungle Jim...now there is not. Where once there was an inches wide game trail there is now a 10 foot wide, manicured trail.
I used to harvest wild plums on trees that lined the canal side of the trail next to the Denver Kent School. Sometime, in the last few years all those trees were cut down. Why? I have no clue.
The removal of those wild plum trees made the trail look so different as to be unrecognizable to me.
It made me sad...and lonesome. I once made purple jam out of those plums and gave some away to friends.
Sometimes, when I travel back home to Illinois I note changes made in town and out in the country that I don't recognize. These changes in landscape make me lose perspective. I lose touch with not only my hometown or other areas I'm familiar with but with myself as well.
I become like a bird which lost its nest because of storm winds and I find myself flying over the area I once lived only to become more and more confused. Always seeking, looking for home...but never quite finding it.
Even people that I once knew and loved began passing away...forever changing the landscape of my mind and heart. Where have they all gone...I wondered?
No matter how old we get, no matter what we endure in this life...it is indeed a short life. Pretty soon once we're gone and everyone who knew us is gone it will be as if we never existed in the first place.
So, when I come back home to Illinois and walk down Main Street and notice that old man Miller's house has been torn down and replaced with a cheap tin shed or when the old laundromat has been dozed and a green park has been landscaped in its place or Mrs. Vance who seemingly lived forever in the big white house on First has now passed away at the ripe old age of 94 I find myself clinging all the more tightly to God who as we know changes not. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I cannot believe a person can remain truly sane without a deep abiding in God's protection and providence. So, when I hike a very familiar trail or walk down a street where I used to play as a child back in the 60s and I lose my way due to some change or whatnot I whisper in God's ear, Lord...please take my hand as I know not where I am...but you do.
All we can do is keep walking, keep going forward with Time knowing that everything changes including ourselves given enough time. So, as I struggle to stay sane in a world unraveling around me, I keep walking with and to God...his hand in mine. And, now everything is ok again. God is here. God is good. God is forever.
BR Schoenbein
Amy Schoenbein
Baby Edgar Schoenbein
June 11, 2017- Sunday
