Stairway to Heaven

When all is well and truly over, or as near as it'll ever be, you, we and our family will rise and go to the mountain with a thermos of hot tea. And we will hunker down there among the stately Douglas-fir, the reddish western red cedar, the croaking, jet-black ravens and coyotes howling insistently. And we will mark out the cabin we'd always planned to build on this deer-grazed patch overlooking that broad valley beside the vast, restless sea. And we will hug each other there, not to tempt fate, but to retrieve those flighty sands of humanity that drifted away through months of separation and anxiety. And we will embrace this location where the camera lens is turned less on ourselves and more on the mind-bending nature around us in all its bewitching livability. And we will remind each other, as the sun sets and full moon rises, that this is where we long to be, thanks to all alongside us who overcame terrible adversity. And we will raise a mug to those who battled the killing machine known clumsily as COVID-19, putting their lives on the line in the name of our security. Then, staring at the heavens, we will toast all the gods of the present and past who gave us this moment in this dazzling, star-lit territory... this stairway to eternity.