Verbal Description
A portrait image
A steep rickety, wooden stairway ascends up the side of a grassy hill. At the top of the hill, the grass meets a line of darker green trees in the distance. The image captures the entire length of the stairway but cuts off the top railings as well as some of the stairs and railing on the bottom left. The tall, thin post of the right railing parallels the right edge of the photo and stops just before the top corner. Both of the railings ascend up the hill at seemingly different angles.
The stairs are not solid, the wood separated by space filled with shadows. The tops of individual stairs are most evident near the bottom of the photo where the sunlight catches them squarely. The front edges of the remaining stairs are only visible as distinct lines of shadow. Long horizontal cracks and weathered lines are vividly evident in the three bottom stairs, the railings and the post.
Tall grass and weeds grow up through the openings between the stairs and around the post. From this angle, some of the weeds seem tall and slender, some appear feathery, and still others seem to have rounded leaves like seedlings. As the stairs climb up the hill, the weeds seem to take over creating a less obvious path for others. Leaving the bottom three stairs, the steps recede into shadow. Daylight and dappled shadows show on the leaves of the green weeds growing up through the stairs.
If I knew all that I was saying “yes” to,
I most certainly would have said “no."
Maybe it’s good that we don’t know—
Can never fully know—
That we might dare to begin
Our ascent along a less traveled path
The place that ponders
“What else is possible?”
This question is answered in moments
Rather than words
Where echoes of the eternal “yes”
Move with us into the unknown
Interrupting outdated responses
As we glimpse a new way to journey.
Step by step by step
We move closer to harmony within
And step by step by outrageous step
We might even bless the challenges
Awakening to a light within
And the call to exhale
A silent “Yes”
With every beautiful breath.
