By the seaside

I think by the time I realised I was lost, I had no idea where I was going. Lying on my bed all I see are the patterns on my ceiling, as the sun and moon went by outside my window each day.

Who am I?

I asked this question to the mirror each day, but he... well he never responds. His smile is dead, his flesh sunken, and the clever light of imagination in his eyes was long gone. Now all I see is a lost boy who was forced to become a man far too soon.

Far too soon.

And now he is lost. Far from his future, his eyes don’t see the path laid before him, his feet are bolted down by the regret and guilt of times already past. But even then when all hope was lost, there still was a light guiding the way.

One day, he took just one step; outside the walls that confide him in his cage. His father had offered his hand to take one more step, to try one more time.

And he does.

Out there, outside the walls that was his past was the seaside. So gray, so boring, so sad and... so beautiful. It’s beauty wallowed through the skin like a gentle touch of a lover’s caress. The air is crisp, the smell of salt refreshing to the bone, embracing in its cold airy grasp. The sound off waves crashed, they ran, they fought; but it was beautiful all the same.

It was beautiful...

So I dared to take another step forward down my path, pushing down the walls and breaking the bolts and chains. And I dared to take a step forward even though I still don’t see my path clearly, but I walk. And I walk. Then I run, I run so fast that it doesn’t matter where my future takes me all I know is that I try.

My future is a never ending bridge, that much I know. I don’t know how long; I don’t know how wide. But I dared to take that first step forward.

Because that’s what the seaside showed me that beautiful day.