it was a late 1980’s bone-chilling winter.
No one had heat, ration coupons,
cooking coal, communal hot water.
We made much noodle soup.
Ate dumplings on special occasions.
Got warm walking the neighborhood
to the local hot water dispensary.
Learned to self-generate internal heat.
We wore two layers of long underwear
under thick cotton pants and
winter coats of multi-layered felt.
Night markets served roasted
sweet potatoes pulled from the guts
of roadside coal-fired barrels,
Hot almond pudding was poured from
giant Silk Road ancient-brass teakettles,
and fresh warm hand-pulled noodles
swam in salty garlic ginger
broths as old as Beijing.
One day we had an opportunity.
A trucker carrying trade goods,
up north beyond the city borders,
offered to drop me and my friend,
at the Great Wall of China.
It was -20 degrees celsius that day.
To get back to the suburbs,
in order to catch a bus into the city,
we had to walk many kilometers -
stone by stone along that great wall.
At any shelter we came upon,
we stopped to get out of the wind -
old remains of guard-houses,
land-surveying lookouts,
navigation towers,
stacks of fallen stone piles.
We recalled stories of potential -
invasions, battles, explorers, artists.
Those who came before us -
our collective ancestors of humanity
whose steps we were retracing.
Recently,
a modernization took place.
No need to walk
the Great Wall of China.
Now, you can fly up
in a chairlift and toboggan down,
shielded from the cold to avoid
our ancestral trials and tribulations.
Recently,
I saw a butterfly walking.
Stretching its legs,
resting its wings,
cultivating an alternative
perspective.
She used her arms,
hands, legs and feet.
It wasn’t because she couldn’t fly,
She valued the climb,
savored change.
After investing her energy,
to acquire this experience,
she flew away -
her choices converting
from experience into new wisdom.
Is that why the crawling caterpillar
decided to become a butterflying?
Intention and desire
to experience unencumbered flight
instead of undulating wave motion.
If evolution occurs by choice,
then does changing your state,
exist as potential,
imagined-inwardly.
Futuristic possibility
imagined manifest.
Stone by stone, step by step,
transformation slowly remakes us -
Born children we all become ancestors.
