The sound of gurgling water surrounded me. The constant comforting noise seemed to hug me and relax all of my muscles at once. The reverberating waves of calmness and serenity covered me with a cool, collective mist of fresh water. The deep, crystal pool swirled from the opposing forces at its sides. An underground irrigation system dispersed the flowing water from to pool into the surrounding farmland.
It is now fall so the leaves are changing and falling down with every slight breeze that passes through the little valley. The small collection of bright red and yellow leaves in the pool swirled spun and gathered together in the center of the pond.
This beautiful spot is hidden in the valley by tall majestic redwoods, wide, strong spruces and a large expanse of blue, purple, and pink wildflowers. Two great waterfalls on each side of paradise supply living water to the clear pool, and a glorious sound of rushing water fills the air with an unmatchable energy.
I remember hearing the news of my childhood home. How there was a great fire that took half the town and most of the neighboring crops. The trees, flowers, tall grass – everything was destroyed. Like an infant still growing and developing totally obliterated in one foul accident.
This summer I traveled back to my old sanctuary to inspect the damage. The flowers were gone, and I could no longer smell the sweet scent of cherry blossoms in the air. At my place of safety and rest, I could only feel pain and sadness. The place where I once went to escape the world around me was no more. The rivers no longer flow into a reflecting pool of sheer beauty. Dead trees and ash had fallen into the streams damming them up and creating new streams that went though the crop fields. Everything around me was black and charred. Everything was dead.
Where the rivers met, there was but a puncture in the ground full of caked mud and cracked dirt. The wonders of the falls that seemed to flow from heaven itself were no more – along with the tranquility that came with it. Mere steep walls of rock and dust were left behind. Without this living water here, I truly felt spiritless.
Forever and always I will remember it as it was. Not as it is. I grew as it grew. My life-long friend and advocate: murdered by human intervention.