Reservoir Daze [Excerpt]

As we make our way down this path side by side everything seems to be absolutely perfect. The blue sky rests easy above us as we tip our heads back and bathe in the mid-July sun. We keep at a steady pace while we absorb the summer heat as if it was the only thing keeping us alive. Birds sing a melody which seems ever-so inviting to the ears of an individual who seeks nothing more than to live. The grass seems so much greener here, or are we just caught up in the moment? Our laughter fades into the summer breeze as it dances ever so elegantly across the waters' surface. We finally reach the rocky hill that we have sprinted down for the past five years of our lives. Still there's a certain rush that slowly makes its way up our spines. To many kids our age a place like this doesn't seem to stand out as paradise but to us it's nothing but. We take a seat on the long slab of concrete which has been getting heated by the early morning hours of sunrise. The water looks back at us with such an inviting glance as we soak in the essence of a moment with this much meaning. Feeling the temperature prior to diving in is completely unnecessary for the fact we know it's just right. As i floated on my back i kept a clear mind along with a fresh outlook on the days that followed. At that moment nothing felt more right then to laugh, put all the stresses of growing up back on top of that rocky hill. For i was surrounded by such a simplistic form of perfection, something that, for many, takes years to come across. Again the lazy days of summer have proved far too easy to get lost in. Thinking forward I wonder If I will ever find a personal paradise of this extent again in my lifetime. Sadly, I can hardly imagine such a place filled with some of the best friends that this life has given me. I am both grateful and upset at this truth, yet an image will always remain in my head of this place we have grown to call paradise.

As the sun slowly begins to disappear, we make our way back up that oh-so familiar rocky hill. At the top I pick up the stresses that I had left there earlier that day for the simple fact that there is no room for a mind filled with stress in such a paradise as this

Written by Zachary Franck in September 2010