Pepper Trail - The Looping Life lyrics

I walked a labyrinth into the new year A painted canvas maze, spread upon the floor of a local church The sanctuary heavy with incense, stirred by unfamiliar bells Peopled with silent swaying forms, upright and wavering as a forest of kelp Tracing the tight turns and the long sweeping turns with careful feet I found myself balanced on the great humped back of an albatross And then, as I moved deeper into the maze, translated into the albatross itself Infiltrated with that power and that surrender to the gales of life So the albatross rides above the wind-clipped waves of the southern ocean Back and forth forever, running down the wind and then turning to rise High and fast in the frigid, dizzy air that spins as the earth spins, unceasing No other flight so direct, so indirect, contending with such great force, so effortless Thousands of miles in one trip, millions of miles in its long, looping life Always racing away and then climbing toward home again The albatross, creature and master of the vast invisible Carried me into the year, and left me with my feet strangely still, on dry land