My Drive

At night my drive from Heron, Montana to Sandpoint, Idaho is like driving through a river gorge. Shadows loom around me. The mountainside rises along the side of the road and as the moonlight illuminates the rock-face I swear for a moment I am once again rafting on the Salmon River through Idaho watching the world carve out before me. There was a time the moonlight was so bright as it flickered through the trees alongside the road, and my eyes were so tired from a long day of my own emotional growth with the kids I was desperately trying to find the disco ball that could create so much light in complete darkness. There are times as I've made the drive late at night that I feel like I am driving through black jello. The blackness is unlike any other I have experienced before. It is only I that create light. When I step on the brakes, my rear window brake light almost startles me as it pierces the darkness. The darkness is a blanket that cloaks my car, and carries me home safely.

On the morning drives into Heron I am amazed by the undeniable beauty that spreads before me. The mountains take on this unbelievable purple hue as the sun rises, softened with translucent clouds and mist that sit just above the ground. The frost on the wheat fields sparkles like diamond encrusted blades of grass. The peaks of the mountains are hidden by the low lying clouds and fog and I try to convince myself that maybe, just maybe the mountains never end, they just go on forever beyond those clouds. There is also a quiet that is filled with peace and the slow, warm movements of morning and awakening.

Driving home in the early evening, I watch amazing sunsets on the lake across the mountains. Oranges, purples, blues - where do I begin? The numerous pine trees all turn black as they become silhouetted against the luminescent sky. The mountain peaks begin to reflect in the lake at just the right time and it is as if this hidden door to a world of amazing natural beauty is opened up. And oh, if there was a way to walk across that reflection into the mountains, into the beauty then that world would be one of eternal sunsets.