The Path

The Path

I am lost, in a sea of words, feelings and situations.

I am alone, but continue to walk my path, my feet touching the earth each step forward I am thankful.

Our pasts are just frightened children,

don't hate them be kind show compassion for they were young and naive,

Still grasping for an identity.

Sometimes it is dark and I stumble crying and afraid,

unable to see what lies ahead,

Yet I know what is behind me and I lovingly look back,

happy for each day I’ve had, and each day I might still be given,

Sometimes there is glorious light which shows me the way,

filtered through the forests of my existence,

Lush green trees, raging waters, people, and animals coexisting with me on my journey,

But no matter how many people you surround yourself with, we all have to walk our future alone.

This fear we have of being alone, why?

We are all alone, we come into this world as a singular being and end each lifetime the same way.

There are cliffs that I stumble over,

cuts and bruises, bleeding hearts and vows of "I will never do that again!"

Rivers that rage, taking me with them down fast moving paths,

But my head remains above the water, for the most part.

I sometimes gasp and choke as the current takes me under for a moment or two, and do you know what? Under that rage is calmness, blissful.

But the water will never let me go, it carries me to new places

Shores that I have never been to,

Places I am destined to see, and people I am meant to know,

even if only for a moment.

I am privileged, yet forever struggling,

Remember many of us do not get to finish our paths,

Some lights go out, taken from their paths to quickly.

But we will remember them, yes?

It's the unknown that drives me,

This nomadic pull forcing me to move on, move forward

And as the youth of my body ages my steps might be slower, but the need to move remains,

I see through wiser eyes.. what struggles have been, and will be,

Are we meant to see and experience everything? Maybe not,

At least not in one lifetime,

I wonder when my soul has travelled lifetimes will my determination fade? Or will it continue to consume me,

Perhaps we aren’t meant to understand the grandness of existence,

That being said, I don’t believe we are meant to stand still,

It is knowledge that keeps our souls roaming eternity,

Waves of time and centuries drawing us ever closer to enlightenment

Each mistake is a step to higher acceptance.

For how can we understand success if we never fail?

Some days I am cold and tired, and shiver as I walk through new experiences.

Cold like the snow that covers the ground when mother earth is tired herself and needs to sleep,

Cold yes, but is it not beautiful? The vastness of it all.

Sometimes life seems loud, deafening and I cover my ears and close my eyes tightly, letting that fear and uncertainty wash over me,

Sometimes that's all we can do is breath and let it pass.

We can’t always be happy and victorious, there must be sorrow to balance the joy.

Good and evil, we are both, all of us.

Which beast do you feed, and what path does it lead you down?

The only certainty is change, and when that glorious silence comes giving us reprieve from the overwhelming chaos in our lives,

it gives us time to stop and look around at where we are,

to remember how many battles we have won, it allows us to reflect on the ones we have lost. There is no shame in losing.

We should never banish our past, you see our pasts are stories, and revisiting them isn’t about negativity or dwelling in the oblivion of our choices, mistakes and regrets,

But to look back and see how far we have grown, to understand ourselves in a better light.

Thank your past for it has made you the person you are at this moment. No matter how dark it may have seemed,

Even darkness can be beautiful, for there is never total darkness, there is always a sliver of light within us that is our soul, and when it's needed the most it will shine.

Our soul is the guardian of our vessels.

Allow the past to guide you, let it show how wise you have become,

Your footprints will never disappear this is why it's so easy to go back in moments of fear, confusion or reflection.

Let the path be new, frightening, joyful and a learning experience. After all when we turn to dust our souls go forward to the next vessel,

And all we have is knowledge, memories and new paths.