Up the hill...

What will you do with a hill, they asked him.

“I will build a house across the hill and look at it every day from my window, he said. I will ride out to it on my gray mare on fine mornings. I shall wear thick spiked boots, carry a rucksack and a strong stick and walk all the way up to the top. And then, I will stand there, spread out my arms, fling my head back and look up at the sky above my very own hill. I will own my time.  That is what I shall do”, said the man.

The people listened and shrugged their shoulders. They thought it was a waste of a lot of good money. Money, he could have given to rebuild the old church in the village. Money, he could have bought all the luxuries of life with. But they let him be.

One day, when the man trudged up to the top of his very own hill, he saw a woman lying on the grass, reading a book. How did you get here, he asked her in amazement. You see, it was a very high hill and the woman wore no spiked boots. Her feet were very delicate and naked.

She looked up with a frown, not happy with being disturbed and said, why, I flew down.

It was then that the man noticed the gentle fluttering wings on her back. The man sat down beside her and peered over her shoulder at the book she was reading. The words meant nothing to him.

“You will have to leave, you know. It is my hill. I bought it”, the man said.

The woman looked up again and put down her book.

“You can’t buy hills. People need them to really get close to the stars and count each one. They need to climb up to the very top of a hill so they can look all the way down and see how tiny their houses are down below.  They need it to run away from the madness and the chaos of the world around them. They need hills so they can stand at the edge and spread their arms wide and feel the wind rush madly through and know what it is to fly. It is only on the top of a hill that they can quietly re-read their book of fairy tales and believe in them once more.”

“You really can’t buy a hill you know”, said the woman gently to the man