Emily desires an early morning walk.

I take my coffee to the easy chair rocker. We bought a beautiful, soft, leather (perhaps not real leather, one is never sure these days and my daughter, who is a fighter for everything that breathes, would prefer it not be leather) chair that swivels and rocks for my husband, Tom, months ago. It was so wonderful, I found that when I sat in it, I could sink into the softness like a child in a feather bed, and so, I had to have one.

The morning rises nicely, in my quiet neighborhood, full of invitation. I glance into the park that is our backyard and see some brave or stalwart women are walking their dogs, making use of the morning cool. I admire them. I remember not so long ago, we used to do the same. Tom and I would rise at six and immediately take the dogs out. We had three dogs then. We are down to one, these days. She lays at my feet and sighs. She, too, remembers those early morning walks, I think. Her beautiful brown eyes land on my face and call me to consider a walk. Yes, please, they say. 

She would walk three times a day, if we could accommodate her. Four times. I don't know, maybe five. 

The tug on my consciousness has not let up. I feel it as if there is an important message waiting for me, somewhere. In another room. Another home. Another neighborhood. Another planet. Another universe.

It pulses with a vague pattern. I concentrate on it, with closed eyes. 

But messages are coming at me too hard and fast. I swallow, take a sip of water, look around the room. Everything is suddenly out of focus. 

And so, it stayed that way for most of the conference, that weekend. I gathered all I had to push through it, the fog that had descended on me. I took some notes. Scattered words on bright white paper. I smiled and laughed at appropriate places, one learns these responses in kindergarten, don't you think?

The fog lifted eventually, that weekend. The tug on my consciousness lessened. It moved to some other in-between space, waiting as if it knew this was not the time.

Today I have a chance to understand. My eyes land on a tree outside my office window. The trees here are small. We are a new neighborhood. I love trees. They are like strong, dependable friends who never disappoint. They just exist and they keep your secrets, no matter how awful or outrageous. They don't judge or laugh at you or tuck your words away to use them against you, someday. They grasp them and fling them out into the breeze, and whatever troubles you have shared are scattering to the wind, like so much nothing, which is what they are.

"I am trying," I say, so quietly the dog doesn't move at the sound of my voice. She is ever alert to the tone and the sound and the possibility of that walk, of course.

"What is it?" I ask.

My soul is suddenly silent.

I will not have an answer today.

There are worlds to be discovered in those spaces in-between.

If we can but find the entrance.

There are worlds to be discovered...