One path travels through lowland meadows,
among darting larks and dipping swallows.
A late creek meanders like a daydream,
glinting in sun as an afterthought of summer.
Black oaks shelter and weeping willows sweep
long-leafed tendrils of green over wild grasses.
The sky is slightly clouded, the light is hazy.
The meadow's edges are lined with giant conifers,
fluting lazily in the spare and cooling breeze,
as if recalling lost loves in distant rolling territories.

The other path leads up the steep slope of a mountain,
over granite rock, along ledges exposed to a view
of the world below, expansive and breathtaking.
This way is winding and always upward bound,
under the small shadows of hawk wings
and a sky ever filling with cumulous cloud,
rumbling thunder, strikes of lightning and sudden rain.
Here Bristle Cone Pine and juniper weather the centuries,
and the air smells like imagination, bright and vigorous.
There are white waterfalls and deep lakes of dark water.
At the summit, there will be a glimpse of heavenly height,
the freedom of seeing eye to eye with osprey and eagle.

Both paths feed the soul. However, to be whole
you must travel both equally, for you will see .

that traveling only the meadow path will bring tranquility and repose,
a communion with the gentler aspects of nature, your own
and those of the wilderness, but you will never to know the thrill
of stepping beyond your bounds and discovering that you are far
larger than you dreamed, and far larger is the world than it seemed.

And traveling only the mountain way will build great fortitude
through perseverance and courage, a communion with the fiercer
aspects of nature, your own and those of the wilderness,
but you will challenge everything too readily and rest too infrequently
in whimsy. You will strive always higher than your fingers reach
and when achieving that heavenly summit, that eagle's view,
you will find no repose in success or beauty and too quickly seek
another, even loftier, adventure for an appetite unquenched.

To travel both paths well and neither too long nor too exclusively
allows the beauty of each to resonate within, deeply and with clarity.
Such travel brings the heart to experience life's joy and endless insight,
both diligence and receptivity rewarded with equal measure of delight.