Numinous Byways

While on a great avenue leading to promised salvation, say, "e;I am the Way the Truth and the Life,"e; seekers may find to the side a lane, a byway which catches the eye-- a rock pool in King's Canyon, a goddess's delight, a wrestling match, a polluted beach. Inspired by curiosity, spiritual freedom, a compulsion to explore, they take this path, which may lead into the heights and depths, an adventure of consciousness from which, eventually they return to the avenue, thereupon to tread, determinedly, with forthright steps, unto the end.