"Where Did You Find That?" by Matt

One of those spontaneous – get up early, go now! –

Like an angelic voice awaking you from a drunken slumber in a Bruges inn, “Matthew, wake up! You must leave now!” And I did and spilled my cup of hangover remedy on my pant leg while on the train to Zaventem and missed my plane. Again.

Yeah, beer holidays can be hard to return from.

But it wasn’t that morning, it was in the desert. I’d gone to bed thinking ‘maybe a hike tomorrow’ and then it was first light and as I regained consciousness I regained the plan to go to a canyon, with a rare water-filled streambed and even rarer morning fog, moistly emancipating the shellac-smelling creosote bush and powder room bitter dusty scent of brittlebush.

And I came to that running wash and couldn’t see across, but there were large stones, maybe haphazard, maybe laid down by a hiker who felt the need to organize. I made my way to one rock in the dense fog, then another, never able to see all the way. But one leap at a time I made it to the opposite bank, on a cool desert hike of solitude. And I looked back at the way and the fog lifted and I could see the whole path.

It gave me clarity, a metaphor, for my life. Circumstances. And I thought, ‘Yeah, here’s what I found. I need that right now.’