SLAYING THE DRAGON
In that day, the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent
With his fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And he will kill the dragon wo lives in the area. (Isaiah 27:1)
“Slaying the dragon” can have many meanings;
To tackle and overcome alcoholism,
Or a disease,
But it can also mean a struggle to overpower
Any perceived weakness or fear,
And I thought of
The California Adventure,
Leaving Hearst Castle,
And the lowlands,
And beginning to climb up
And then down—
One mountain peak after
Another, driving cautiously,
Constantly pursued by
Faster moving vehicles;
The mountain peaks seemed
Never ending, but we
Hugged the mountainside,
Never looking down;
Once back in the lowlands
I patted myself on the back
For slaying this dragon—
I had never driven over
Mountains before—
But there was more to come
When we began the steep climb
Over seven thousand feet high
On our way to Yosemite,
And this time Baby car
Was on the outside lane.
I kept my eyes on
The yellow line in the middle
Of the road–
And never, never glanced beyond,
While Sharon, my Canadian
Penpal, making her first trip to
California, kept whispering
Words of encouragement.
You never know what you are
Capable of doing
Until you do it,
And if that was Slaying the Dragon,
Then I slew it that day.
Sandra Lee Smith/August 2008
