At the Crossroads

At the crossroads of wronged and offended I stand. Both paths equally worn down. Trees along the edges of each look meager, thinned from pollutants. Sections of brown, dead limbs have given up the fight. No matter the time of day, they cast eerie shadows, their bare, bony arms reaching for you. The thicket beneath has grown up in tangles of thorns, briars, weeds, and vines for miles. I know each path well, every turn, every long, seemingly unending stretch and rough patches everywhere, pot holes and poorly patched spots and some stretches of road traveled with such heavy loads that tread marks look like parallel trenches. Talk about misalignment! Pulling out of that deeply embedded track can be tricky. With exit ramps hidden from view, you have to keep a keen eye out for them, and just when you think you’ve reached the end, you find yourself back at the beginning. You’ve accomplished nothing more than a loop! After so many trips around and getting nowhere but back to Victim’s Crossing, you’d think I would have found another way before now. But sometimes awareness takes time, especially when you’ve been on auto pilot.

Here I am again. I’ve come full circle. It’s time. Time to step out of the vehicle in such disrepair, thank it for the ride, and walk, forging my own path of forgiveness, forgiveness of myself for forgetting that it’s all just a classroom and we the students. I’m forging a new path of forgiveness, through the heart of the forest, where the trees, great giants, help lay the path with their needles and leaves, where the under growth sprouts up in harmony with the giants and everyone exists in balance, where the light streaming like glistening jewels in through the royal canopy above is too brilliant to give notice to shadow, where paths are easy and worries none and connected to the earth our awareness is magnified, senses heightened, no trenches, just love, no need for exit ramps, just exploration and remembering the light that we are.