109.365 - a year in foothills

it was, perhaps, a year of trial
living in a cabin in the foothills
snow came early and stayed
weather fickled
now fall, now winter, now spring
blue skies with snow falling
grey days with cold winds
blue skies with snow melting
one followed another in no pattern
I read Zen and rode a motorcycle
and might have learned some spirit
except I’d found a woman
who stayed away winter days
but visited fall and spring
and made the cabin summerish
we explored loving as if it were my koan
mountains covered in snow ignored our sparks
but I lived as if each one was life
each one a gift some goddess gave
to cherish, study, examine, and breathe
summer came and I had to leave
and took with me everything she taught
I thought, and we kept finding places to spark
two years or more, I studied, cherished, breathed
and four decades later still contemplate
what I learned and didn’t, from her
the cabin, foothills, mountains
and wonder what lessons I missed