Clean Slate

There is a long, wide, sidewalk that snakes through this place.  It is actually a golf cart path, but a long wide sidewalk paints a better picture in the brain.  Depending on the direction of the traveler, the walk either starts or ends going uphill or down.  It passes between two small bodies of water.  The long, wide sidewalk has a canopy of Loblolly pine trees that tower over fifty feet above, blocking out most of the sunshine, yet creating an umbrella effect during a rain. Although the Loblolly is part of the evergreen family and are 'ever green', they still lose their needles.  The many thousands, or millions, of three needled clusters that cover the ground are a testament to their shedding.  The number of needles in the cluster is how the pine species is recognized.  Loblolly 3, White 5 and Red or Jack have 2.

During the latter part of autumn and into winter, the pine trees, in their quest to stay green, shed their needles onto the long, wide sidewalk, making it nearly impossible to see.  Along with the dreary winter rains, the carts that use this path, leave behind muddy tracks that seem to be eternally ground into the cement.  This process leaves the long, wide sidewalk looking as if it is depressed. Then, as if a desperate cry was heard from afar, the rains came again and after them came an angel with a leaf blower.  

The path is clean again.  It's newly bathed surface cuts a stark contrast to the fading brown needles that line both sides.  It beckons the traveler to come again, to walk the path, to contemplate there, beneath its grand canopy, because now it is a clean slate.

What would it do for the soul, to look upon each new day as a clean slate?  To realize that what happened yesterday is still there and there is no need to drag it along into tomorrow.  To understand that each awakening is a chance to start again.  To see where the mistake was made and to know how to avoid it.  To wake and to realize what a gift that really is.  To have another chance to make things right, or to forgive, or to love.  To come to the realization that life is to be lived and not taken for granted.  

Step out onto that long, wide, clean slate of life and whether it takes the journey north or south, be most grateful for the opportunity.