At one time in his life, he thought
he would spend the rest of his
life wandering along the shore

of the Gulf of Mexico and then
life happened. Along the way,
he fell in love with the forests

of Kentucky and Michigan, the
smell of the evergreens and the
flowering deciduous, the rolling

hills, the crunching sands along
the shore of the Big Lake, the

Flat Irons and the snow caps
and the fourteen-thousand footers
and the bronze beauty — the desert

of the Southwest, the greens,
blues, yellows, the spring flowers,
the hoarfrost that sings “Catch

Me If You Can”; then he found
himself jogging along the shore
of the Gulf and he knew he

was in love with the waves
and the sand and the trees
and the shrubs and the lakes

and the rivers and the mountains
and desert and the animals who
were here first and he inhales

it and he knows he’s a part of
it, and it’s a part of him and
he is better for it.