Legendary Poetry

Epiphany

I stood alone in the darkness only yards from my destination, hopelessy incapacitated, legs shaking, body trembling, and heart beating hard. The torturous pain was nearly unbearable as I cried out with tears in my ears. As I stood there wavering like a drunken man I wondered to myself, "What had happened to me? How had I come to this position life?"

I stood immobilized agonizing in pain, grimacing as if I was burning in a cauldron of molten steel, as I pondered these things. I leaned desperately on my cane which reeled under my weight. Thankfully, not a single soul was there to see this spectacle. Then I thought, "what if I should fall? Who would help me? Who would notice me? Who would call for help?"

"Damn!" I thought as that thought brought to mind the fact that I had no way of communicating with anyone. "How could I have been so foolish to walk outside, even for a short walk, given my condition?" I cursed myself for doing this. As I stood there, I decided to look up at the sky and peer at the stars. They were so pure, so beautiful, and seemingly so innocent. I thought of my own life.

"Was it really that bad?" I asked myself out loud within the ear shot of nobody. "Sure, I am in pain, but I am alive!" It occurred to me that each day is a gift made especially for me. A wonderful gift that I enjoyed daily. A gift greater than I could ever receive for that matter.

I began to search the annals of my life, the thrilling bright hills and the deep darkened valleys, the spacious and marvelous mountains, the perilous black and deep ruts that seemingly stopped my progress still. I had enjoyed great successes and endured crushing defeats. Somehow the defeats always stand out from the rest.

"Why is that?" I asked curiously. I considered all of those defeats one by one: Deaths, separations, loss, disappointment, betrayal, and most poignantly loneliness. Then I considered the scoundrals who had ushered in some of those defeats: cheats, crooks, imposters, rogues, the list went on and on. Anger boiled from within my very soul when I thought of the damned fruits of these things.

A cool wind brushed my face and I was startled into thinking the ill effect these thoughts were having upon me. I took a deep breath and turned my head to the North Star, shinning and bright. It gave me new hope. Although it slightly burned my eyes, it also enlightened my soul. I began to see things in a new light.

"Had my life always been bad? Had things always gone poorly for me" I contemplated inquisitively. Surely not. As I stood there, leaning ackwardly on my pain and feeling the debilitating pain that crippled me I wondered, "How many successes did I enjoy?"

Perhaps not as many as the failures that I endured but it occured to me that the successes were so much more rich, more poignant, more powerful than the successes and had always been so. Why I did not see that until at just this moment was a curiosity to me?

Why did it take this moment of intense pain to open my eyes to this truth? Although my pain was just as real as it was before these ponderous thoughts, I stood there in wonderful astonishment. I stopped for a moment to consider these things quietly to myself. Breathing deeply, another light cool breeze caressed my leather worn, aged face.

I closed my eyes as if to pray, though no prayer was recited. Instead a feeling of gratitude for all that life had presented to me: family, friends, and a chance to greet each new day and to live! Yes, that was the point of life. To live and to live well regardless of whether it presents glorious successes, bruising defeats, or any matter of occurrence in between.

"The point of life," I reasoned, "was to enjoy the successes, learn from the defeats and proceed with bold determination on the journey of life regardless of our situation." With that new found wisdom, I slowly, albeit painfully, made my way back to my humble domicile to enjoy a time of rest. Surely, this was an epiphany.