fireflies

May 8, 2008

April 26th

I’m lying in a bed in a house that sleeps thirty.  The sounds of evening are all around me and the memories of the day vivid yet somehow indescribable.

We left for a horseback ride in the early afternoon and I am still astounded by it all, the tenacity of young girls astride temperamental mounts and the sounds of Colombian cowboy music drifting through the trees.  We stopped to rest for a bit at a little camp house and sat on the porch watching the clouds rise and talking about all the greens of the countryside.  The children ran and giggled as they bathed in an outdoor shower and chased dragonflies through the grass.  The gloaming came and we mounted once again headed toward home.

The sun sank behind the mountains, a box of crayons melting into the horizon.  And then, the miracle of it all.  Fireflies all around, the clip clopping of horses’ hooves, the lights of Chipre in the distance, and the promise of the moon.  I offered up a prayer of thanks for memories such as these and could not help but notice that my words were in Spanish.

Posted in colombia