Catching Fog

author's note:

As they say in the movies: based on a true story.


CATCHING FOG

While walking to school
one childhood morning
I thought I could lose myself
in a fog cloud hovering
on the other side of the field.

But though I ran hard
I arrived to find
that thick cloud had fled
and when I turned, I saw
the mysterious vapor waiting
over there where I’d started.

So I raced back
but again that fog tricked me.
Hooked by my fantasy
I ran again—I ran

until
I finally had to stop
to get
my wind
back.

Only then did I feel
the burn of those wet wisps
deep inside my chest.

Satisfied that I’d caught some fog
I lifted my head and walked on
as the sun began to clear the cloud.

That childhood folly
later became a useful metaphor
when I needed to accept
what appeared to be the folly
of my adult life.
Consider the story:

for years
I raced here and there
and back again.
But no matter where I went
the imaginary heaven I sought
was never where I was.

Finally forced to stop
I felt I’d lost
until
I discovered I burned hot
with all that I had taken in.

After that realization
I lifted my head again
and saw that the fog had begun to thin
cleared by insight—
or
in the words of this metaphor-maker:
sharp rays of the morning’s sunlight.

mythsteps · Catching Fog

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