Healing Magic

Coming around the bend of the trail, I realize the path we used to take to get there has almost dissapeared. I wonder if any kids go there these days? Gosh, it was almost as much a home for us as our actual houses back then. Picking my way through the trees and bushes, I ponder just how many hours we spent there. Hundreds, I'm sure. We went there frequently not only as innocent kids, but as teens to get up to no good. Even a couple times in recent years mostly for the nostalgia of it.

Yep, just the same as ever. The stones are mossier than they used to be, and there's more foliage in general, but boy it hasn't changed much. A time capsule from the past. Jeez, all the stories we used to come up with here, they were never ending. One day we might be mages, druids, or necromancers calling on the powers of the various magics or forces we employed in our fights against our enemies. Another time we were stone giants, here trying to free our kin from their imprisonment by the evil warlock Sighast the Enslaver. We managed to break his spell, free our bretheren, and give him a whooping like the birds and squirrels around here had never seen.

Or we'd just come and hang out. Countless hours of Pokemon cards or playing Game Boy. I still feel bad that we were young and careless, tossing our old batteries as far as we could just to hear them whipping through the leaves. At least we never accidentally hit a sparrow or something. Of course, there were the other, less intrusive activities too. Races around the circle, or plain old leapfrogging the stones. I still remember the time it started to rain, and I slipped as I went over one of them. I bashed my butt so hard on it I couldn't sit the whole rest of the day! You laughed so hard, but you actually had the grace at age 8 to pretend to fall as well, just so I'd feel better.

Then, of course, there were the immeasurable hours spent sullying this sacred place of our childhood with smoke, drink, and all manner of "mind expansion expeditions," as we used to call them. Those days we bothered the wildlife blasting everything from Cypress Hill to Pink Floyd, covering conversation topics from the meaning of existense to Kayla Howell's great boobs. Hah, real intellectuals. You know what though? I'd do a lot to be able to sit down and have another one of those stupid interactions again. Even more to be able to one day bring our own kids here, like we said we would. Instead, I'm bringing this picture of us to hang on a tree, cause that's as close as we'll ever get now. They spread your ashes in a beautiful place, but it'll never have the magic of this one. Its helping me heal already. Rest in peace.