Sequoia Beads

That summer I whittled two beads from broken branches of Sequoia trees. I dyed them with wild berries and strung them onto a braided hemp necklace I hoped you’d wear to keep me close to your heart.

Or maybe it was to prove that I could be the one ... just crafty enough to gather the goods to build you a home, to paint the walls and to weave stories that could take root in our chests. That I had learned, in that forest of giants, the secrets that push a seed to impossible heights.

So I sand these boards and fix the sprinklers and assemble beds for our babies to outgrow. And too often it feels like threatening blazes, uncontrollable winds blowing through. But that summer I taught myself to braid a beautiful tether, dear ... so we can stand, now and then, unswayed. Under a canopy of dew-drip reprieve, watching the saplings grow.

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- Sequoia Beads from Dreamt in Insomnia, an ongoing Why TF can’t I sleep series by Steven Jackson *no Giant Redwoods were harmed in the making of this post