Centuries have turned the monastery into ancient ruins, but I still remember walking these grounds as a child when the monks dwelled here. My old friend and teacher once taught me this poem:
世の中は
何にたとへん
山彦の
こたふる聲の
空しきがごと
It means:
Our life in this world –
to what shall I compare it?
It’s like an echo
resounding through the mountains
and off into the empty sky.
For the longest time I always found his poem sad that it focused upon our lives fading into emptiness above. Yet now, I can feel the truth to the rest of his words, we do have the power to make the very mountains of this world shudder. Living long is not the same as living loud, my friends in Elmerton have taught me that.
Even as I walk among the foot prints of my past I can feel the magic of that quaint town calling to me. I wonder how much has changed in the moons that I have been gone. I can even hear Takaeda whispering to me about returning to the waterfall in Elmerton. My friends, I hope you still gather round the hearth and share stories of your many adventures. I hope you still look kindly on strangers and help those in need. Set aside a cup of tea for me my friends, I am on my way back to you.
Silver