page 104

Love is the greatest force
in this living life.

Compassion, the greatest solution.

~

as is the wind Its reflection due face,
God made Love a Moving Place.

against rival Suffering in The Race,
God made Compassion embrace.

to take across The Line two equals,
to even out The Chase.

:::

if each of us carried a blacklight,

we would see the fingerprints

of the words we wish to say,

those we regret to have said,

and the ones of which

we will never speak.

turn off the lights;

our true stories

may only be spoken by moonlight.

:::

there was a place in the forest

called Impossible Lake.

its name was given by native tribes,

and later local fishermen,

who said there was an abundance of fish,

but they were nearly impossible to catch.

on a morning when vapor was dancing across the water,

two men decided to fish on Impossible Lake.

one man was saddened, so the other brought

him fishing to cheer him up.

the cheerful man cast out his line

on each throw with many hopes.

the saddened man simply cast out his line.

hours passed on Impossible Lake,

until the saddened man's line began to quiver and bob.

the cheerful man said,

"my friend! look at your line! you've got something!"

the saddened man's eyes opened wide,

and he yanked on his line.

"i do! i've got something!"

"reel her in!", the cheerful man shouted.

the saddened man put all the power

in his hand and wrist and reeled and reeled.

the men's boat rocked back and forth

until the flopping trout landed over the side.

the cheerful man looked at his friend and yelled,

"ahh! you did it! God did you see that?

he just did the impossible on Impossible Lake! ha!

my friend you did it! aren't you so defiant?"

the saddened man smiled, "yes! yes i am,"

as he watched the fish gasping between his feet.

the cheerful man looked at the fish

and then at his friend.

"aren't you happy you did it?"

he looked up.

"i am! well. i wish i could be...like you are."

the cheerful man looked at his friend

and asked, "should we throw the fish back in?"

"yes, we should do that," the sadden man uttered.

the cheerful man handled the fish and threw him back 

into the lake wiping his hands on his pants.

"should we keep fishing then?" he said to his friend.

the saddened man looked at him with a faux smile

and used all his might to say as cheerfully as he could,

"of course we should!"

the cheerful man was cautious and saddened for his friend

for he had known him many years and had seen this face before.

a few minutes after casting their lines,

the cheerful man looked to his friend and asked,

"God must have given you some luck today, so,

if you catch another fish on your line,

why don't we pull the fish in together?"

"you mean we won't use the rod and just

pull him in off the line?"

"exactly!"

"why?"

"it'll be a challenge to ourselves,"

the cheerful man said pridefully.

"ok then, we'll try it," said the saddened man,

roused by the challenge.

more time passed, and the sun was just above the

tree line when the saddened man's line quivered

and bobbed again.

"oh! i got one again! i got one!"

the cheerful man shouted, "you do! ok here we go.

my friend you pull in the back, i'll pull in the front.

ok---ready, go!"

while the rod rested on the bottom of the boat,

both men feverishly pulled the fighting fish

by the wet line through their hands.

"keep pulling!" shouted the cheerful man.

both of their faces grimaced with each pull.

"this line is going to cut our hands!" shouted

the saddened man.

"don't worry about that! keep going!"

the fish fought and swam with all it could

until it began to exhaust itself.

its body started to toss on the surface,

splashing and flailing widely.

"we, almost, gooot it!"

the men pulled and pulled.

"you got the line! i got the fish!"

the saddened man pulled on the line,

and the cheerful man clawed at the slippery fish

until an even larger trout floundered into the boat.

both men looked at each other.

"ahhhhh! ha ha! my god!"

"we did it! we did it!"

they nearly capsized the small boat

flopping around like two happy fish.

"we have done it again God! did you see it THAT?"

"i can't believe we did it!" yelled the saddened man.

panting like overheated dogs,

both men eventually sat down in their boat.

"my friend, we did it." said the cheerful man.

the fish lay lifeless in the boat,

having accepted final defeat.

the saddened man wiped his brow

and looked out at the lake and then

back at his friend.

"shew! we really did it, didn't we?"

the saddened man said presenting

a calm, joyful smile.

two, small cresting rivers formed

under the cheerful man's eyes.

"we did my friend. we sure did."