Just on the other side

Living on a cul de sac has a lot of advantages.  One of them is that it is really private.  And after living on a street where many people traveled, it is a pleasant relief to have privacy.  Part of the pleasantness is that I get to lean against my car or sit on the trunk and look at the end of the street and see the natural park that runs the length of the housing addition.

It's virtually impossible to judge distances in the picture above.  It's about 20 yards from my driveway to the sign, about another 15 yards to the trees growing along the stream, and the green sloping hill beyond the trees is about 40 yards.  At the top of the hill is a street of houses.  100 yards beyond that street of houses is a runway for private small planes.  All the houses along that airstrip have hangars for the Cessnas and other planes.  It's been active this spring.

I can't see the runway just on the other side of the hill that slopes up from the stream that I sit staring at, thinking.  But, I know it's there because I see planes landing and taking off.  That keeps me thinking, of course.  I wonder who is in flying the plane and why they are flying.  I imagine a lot of things without really knowing.  But, I think that's why I like looking at this hill and wondering what exactly is happening just on the other side of my vision.

And, by application, I look ahead of me in time.  I can see only a couple of hundred yards in front, but I can lean against what I have already done in life and imagine.  I think of people that I might meet and that I have already met. For the latter, I wonder what they're doing, what their mission now is.  I know they're flying somewhere piloting their craft toward the good life they deserve.  For the former, I have a few more intersections to go through where I will meet people, and I wonder what they will be like and why they will be in my path.

I don't really like seeing only what is directly in front of me.  It's hard to judge the distances looking too far ahead, and then the scene disappears.  I can't see what lies just on the other side.