The day was one of those clear days with a cloudless blue sky. Even though it was the middle of winter, the lake was not covered with snow and was clear as glass. Our pit bull, Moses, stood by the side of the lake barking at his reflection. Once again Moses raised that philosophical question: “How do we see ourselves?” Unfortunately Moses is not the brightest dog and when he barks at himself he wonders why he does not receive a reply.

Overhead, the clear sky would not permit even the smallest cloud to break the harmony. Then, suddenly, a white streak cut across the sky. It was a jet stream. I followed the white wake of the jet stream as it traversed the lake before disappearing over Lone Pine Mountain. As I watched I reflected on how satisfying it was to have a clear direction in life, especially at a time of uncertainty when life seems so confusing. Following the jet stream I saw life as a straight line without any bends, curves or obstacles.

Until––another plane, invisible to the eye, cut across the original jet stream and the combination of the jet streams, one horizontal and one vertical, created a giant X in the sky. Now the celestial traveler could not travel in a single direction. Life had crisscrossed and for those of us here on earth we were thrown into a quandary of how to proceed. Which route would we take?

We are told that our lives never stretch in a single straight line. Certainty vanishes and we are in confusion about which way to travel. If we are optimistic we will hope that the goal will lie straight ahead. Our hopes are high. However, too often the path we take has many ins and outs and who knows where we will go. However, one of the many assets of humanity is that we continue to believe that eventually we will emerge into a new day with a new beginning.

Unfortunately, we simply do not know when and where this will be.

Sheltering