Quiet is heard with the heart. The hustle and bustle of summer is yielding to the quiet of fall. There is a permanence in silence, alone with your thoughts. Does a tree fall in the woods if no one sees it? Who is watching? We wait for the other shoe to drop. At times, we are obsessed with shoes. Will the shoe dropping invade the quiet? The show is spectacular. The activity is a bit like the ants on an anthill. They move with a sense of purpose and place. The ant’s mission is to work with the ant community. Many ants make the work light. So it goes with our mystery adventure.

From the slap on the bottom by the doctor until now, we have been in it. There was a home life of play and learning to walk. Then school with so many funny and different personalities. The playground with steel monkey bars and a merry-go-round that kids fell off of. The protective padding on the ground under the merry-go-round was stones. Sitting in class, wondering why the teacher was talking so much. The burden of study. Education has its place, as God does not drop down the knowledge of living via Amazon Prime.

How did we get here, and where are we going? We seek the one right way to travel to the other end of life. Our way is the best, and no other way matters. Heathen and unschooled in the golden path, we say. We walk the same path our parents walked, or choose a totally different path to prove our independence. We are looking and watching for the Secret.

‘What a long corridor this is,’ Billy B said to his companions. ‘We were hiking in the Woods and now we are in this dark herculean hall,’ Billy B noted. ‘I know this is a Halloween Hike, but this is weird,’ Billy B proclaimed. ‘I see a Veil at the end of the Hall,’ Billy B. continued. ‘I wonder if the Secret is behind the Veil,’ Billy B mentioned. ‘I have been looking for the Secret all of my life,’ Billy B said.

‘A child is guarding the Veil,’ Chet said. ‘She is smiling and beckoning us to come forward,’ Chet noted. ‘She has a beautiful smile,’ Chet said. ‘Let us go in and see the Secret,’ Chet said. ‘I see through the crack in the Veil many unusual colors and a crystal sea,’ Chet noted. ‘There are people I have known before and places I have been,’ Chet said. ‘The world looks strangely familiar yet very different,’ Chet exclaimed. ‘There is my miniature pool table in my bedroom and the painting of Jesus looking over Jerusalem, Chet whispered. ‘I am reading the Bible in the kitchen adjacent to the Wood/Coal stove, and the Bible pages are curling up due to the heat,’ Chet noted. ‘Neva J is hollering Hit the deck, you rubberneck, Chet laughed. ‘There is Christmas dinner with Aunt Vema and Aunt Wanda and Uncle Bill around the dining room table,’ Chet laughed. ‘The little Christmas Tree sitting on the end table that Neva J was so proud of,’ Chet observed. ‘Driving to Elkville with Neva J at the wheel to attend church,’ Chet said. ‘Walking in the Woods with my Guardian Angel in the autumn, Chet sighed.

‘Perhaps we were here all along and did not realize it,’ Jane said. ‘We were preparing for something totally different when we had a foretaste of the world to come,’ Jane continued. ‘We were in the dressing room preparing to go on stage,’ Jane exclaimed. ‘We were learning our parts and our lines,’ Jane said with tears in her eyes…