Kaore an? kia mahue i a au te take nei.
Through futile hope: ecstasy in
His glory. Radiance of dawn.

Light cascades around ancient branches. For centuries unchanged, unmoved, it stands. Deep roots survive both storm and fire. At throne’s foot, it watches, waiting.

Stand beneath the boughs and think. Silence seems to reign. Here sea and sky meet almost seamlessly at the horizon, each a mirror reflecting another endless void. Layers of rock, borne away by tides’ ebb and flow, climb upward: a perilous perch where all things meet.

The air echoes with childlike laughter.

In its arms, see a girl. Face absent of all fear; arms spread wide as if in defiance of the world. And beneath her, crouched in the spreading boughs, her brother: a challenge in his luminous eyes.
The ocean flickers in the sunlight. “The waves are dancing,” she squeals.

A chuckle. “Rough waves are better.” He reaches for his sister.

“Bring me back to see them then,” she demands, squirming from his tickling fingers. More chuckles at the staunch determination on her face. Their eyes lock. “It’s not funny! Promise!”

“Alright, alright. I promise.”

Glowing shades of red and pink spiral in the skies above. They sit together on the damp grass, all at once vulnerable and innocent: children with no worries. They stay there watching. Watching as the last sliver of gold disappears beneath the sea.

Yellow, orange, blue balloons, on that day they filled the heavens; surrounding the sun in its glory. One for each person you touched. See the footprints scattered on the empty beach: this gathering of hope. But raindrops now cut into the sand. A mask of cloud covers the sky. Beyond that I can only imagine; I reach but I cannot touch. I imagine you smiling, for without that I could not keep walking when you are not there to catch me.

Liberty from silent flames. Yet hand in hand: desolate rains.

Feet sliding on muddy ground, she trudges up the hill, head bowed. Her hands clutch a single yellow balloon which the wind threatens to snatch cruelly from her grasp, never letting go. Today, sea and sky are locked in combat. Waves pound the jagged rocks below as the wind screams in anguish. Ocean spray lashes up the cliff face to the kauri’s roots: still standing, until all things pass away.

She lets go. Eyes straining she watches as the indifferent wind tosses the balloon away toward the sky. A silver haze clouds her vision and the balloon’s golden orb seems to glow like the setting sun. Waves blur into that glistening mirror of blue that echoes their moment together. Yet she drives it away.

Salt spray and tears mingle on her cheeks, trickling into her mouth which opens in an unspoken cry. But the wind screams for her in the silence. For this was his favorite kind of sea.

Unseen breath will one day
beckon: in that moment of euphony
faith will prevail. Until then
bloom.

By the water I feel so close to you it seems all I have to do is close my eyes and I will return to those innocent days. But life is a journey and, sometimes, on journeys, the road is very dark. Without darkness how we could we see the stars? I will walk on with hope, until my journey’s end.

Until we meet again. Ka noho tonu koe ki roto i t?ku p?mahara. I will carry your memory in my heart.