I am not a mountain dweller… my everyday world is flat with an occasional hill or rocky climb…but I have seen and felt mountains.
It was September 13, 2001. Our flight was booked and my sister was getting married 2100 miles away on the west coast of Canada. Airports had just reopened after the 911 attacks and air travel felt risky but we were not willing to be intimidated. We would not call off our plans…through grey clouds our jet climbed to the stratosphere.
My memory shifts to mountains I’ve seen on Vancouver Island and in Jamaica…narrow winding roads hugging cliff edges, eyes glued to the road steering a rental car…or hands gripping seats in an old bus hurtling at breakneck speed while we pray for no head-on collision on a thoroughfare barely as wide as the bus.
air is thinning
sheer cliff one foot away
climbing a mountain
I inhale deeper
trusting the one at the wheel
©️2018 Ontheland
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This month’s theme at Carpe Diem HaikuKai has been a Journey into the Andes. The May 28 episode (#1441) features a video ‘Music of the Andes’. The images of narrow mountain roads in the video remind me of my similar experiences. The music is from the album ‘Flutes des Andes’ performed by Alpamayo:
Ontheland 