Rhapsody

By Ronnee

For Maggie and all Brigadears

 

 

Josiah

 

What could be better than a warm, big, cuddly, mountain lion of a man with a temper to match my own?

 

With a voice as if God took 27 yr old scotch, melded it into dark chocolate and then turned it into sound

 

His eyes are the blue of a fresh sky after a spring rain with flashes of lightning still echoing through it

 

 

His strength is that of the mountains -- firm and steady until the mountains rage and then it is unstoppable.  But when held in check, his strength is as gentle as the softest breeze of spring.

 

His speech is that of erudite quotes and exacting personal insights, showing his keen understanding of the human race. 

 

His thoughts echo the convolutions of the winds through the desert canyons bringing hints of past memories, the dust of long gone civilizations, fresh new thoughts and mixing them into one new whole

 

His hands are large and strong enough to crush a stone and yet gentle enough to cradle a newborn still soft and weak from its journey into life.

 

His faith is the bedrock underpinning the whole mountain range... sure, silent, unseen, and yet always there.  It is unchanging in its presence but the source of the changes of the man who accepts it and himself so thoroughly.

 

His smile is ephemeral, swift and silent enough to make the observer wonder if it really was there – and like the double rainbow, it transforms the landscape around it into a place of wonderous, rugged beauty.

 

The laughter and joy that appear so infrequently in his life are the swift, cleansing winds and rains that cleanse the desert air of heat and death and pain, erasing them and leaving life behind.

 

His temper is the raging storm and the destructive whirlwind that destroy all things that stand up to them, removing obstacles and hurling them far away and then fade as if begging for forgiveness and bringing peace in the silent echoes of the storm.

 

This and more is Josiah.  For he shows these traits and hides so many many more.  And each is as much a part of his nature as the myriad pieces of sand that float in the desert air.

 

That is the Rhapsody of Josiah.