Sometimes, you guys really blow me away! Thank you for the comments on my Anisotropic post. Now THAT, I certainly wasn't anticipating. This one's a little Apo-play, postwork in PS, with one seriously long-winded missive attached (which, sorry, lost it's formatting when posted, and frankly, I'm just too tired to care):) Have a lovely Sunday (what's left of it) and a beyond beautiful week ahead. Hugs, Nancy~* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remember when we first understood, that words such as "reaching" and "rain," would never again know their former meanings? Long ago, they became replaced instead, with your immediate presence. "Take these words upon your heart," you said. "They are but all of me." (And everywhere, ribbons of gold, unraveled.) We moved within the flawlessness of a dance; sometimes without seeing, without hearing; a dance begun with thirsty hands, outstretched and yearning, to touch the comfort of a place we had never, yet always, known. (And everywhere, ribbons of gold, unraveled.) We glimpsed intangible reflections of recognition, grateful that our frail human understanding was not requisite to the meaning of all we had become, tip-toeing shared envisionment, tongue-tasting rain-gifts of the soul's divine unreason. My heart, once a bird in plight, no longer cried for peace. (And everywhere, ribbons of gold, unraveled.) Every facet, each complexity, tenderly acknowledged, and with it, the birth of a certain weightiness. Lifelong mind-fabrication, always previously vision-obscured, yet kept alive within the sanctuary of the self, stoked with a couple of half-hearted breaths from time to time, a maintenance of its thready pulse. (And everywhere, ribbons of gold, unraveled.) Once, we stood at the edge of the rarest precipice, to witness the sacred unveiling of another's soul. Always treading lightly, with unprecedented awe, respect, and humility; having already come to accept, with a certain grace, the manner in which life, love, and loss often visit, and sometimes without warning. (Everywhere, everywhere, ribbons of gold, unraveled.) Do you recall embraces, welcomed as wholly as bruised children welcome soothing from their greatest familiarity? Carefulness and gentleness were compelled, and compelling. We felt the fragility of this place. (And everywhere, ribbons of gold, unraveled.) But, we so often kill the things we love. In our feeble attempts to understand, or to define them, we strip away, or cast aside the beauty from life's most precious and valuable. I never quite understood that inherent mortal truth. Until, you managed the unfathomable, vanishing, without a word or trace. Without even the humanity of reason or explanation, you were gone, leaving a black hole in my universe, gaping, and clearly, the very shape of your silhouette. And in the blistering rawness of the unforeseen, my soul splintered in the wake of carelessness, a million silver-slivered broken dreams of yesteryears that haunt me; yet I cannot undo a solitary day. I no longer recognize the once-warmth of a place minus memory. I weep the tears of a very small girl. Everywhere, ribbons of gold unraveled. Sometimes, I unravel.. still. NCM 2008