Momentary Bliss
I’m trying to pull out of the post office in my tiny Alaskan town, but the steady stream of RVs, 4-wheelers and pedestrians clad in quick-dry pants and hiking boots are clogging the intersection, forcing me to pause. My fingers on the steering wheel tap along with the blinker and the rousing folk guitar beat that floods my car. A deep, gravely voice lifts from the speakers:
God take me there this must be the afterlife
God take me there this must be the afterlife
God take me there this must be the afterlife
Cottonwood fluff, lazily floating in the breeze, turns the scene beyond the windshield into a mid-summer snowglobe. The white balls drift onto the counter of a food truck as smiles, salmon burgers and credit cards are exchanged. Strangers sit to share a picnic table and napkins are passed to a toddler twisting an immense ice cream cone in a sticky hand. A small gray dog, crouched at the feet of the child, leaps for a drip that escapes the napkin, misses and knocks over a red and white paper dish of leftover french fries. A shiny-coated raven hops from the periphery, snatches a fry and lifts to weave through the puffs of cotton and the vibrant leaves extending from the trees that shimmer and shake like tiny green tambourines, sending the snowy-white seeds dancing, swirling, and twirling around the RVs, 4-wheelers and pedestrians clad in quick-dry pants and hiking boots.
God take me there this must be the afterlife
I’m almost there this must be the afterlife
Shivers cascade through my spine and my body feels like it’s lightening and lifting like the cotton and I GET IT! I see the web of connection! I can feel it! It’s all so perfect! What a grand universal orchestra playing in unison, each of us adding our own unique parts! We are all divinely tied together in the oneness of this human experience and-
-beep-
A gentle tap on a horn behind me reminds me that this bliss can’t last forever- we have places to be and things to do and timelines to meet and thoughts to think and judgements to make and fears to hide from and my foot eases off the brake and I’m easing into the road and thinking salmon burgers would be really good for dinner.
