I was walking down this road lined with parked cars and coastal vegetation. I’ve been on this “path” many times, so I had a sense of what to expect. But this time there was a human figure in the distance. With each step I took the figure grew larger in the middle of the road. I ignored the scenery on the sides, instead, concentrating on this stationary person. I was closing in on a man on a cell phone. Hadn’t expected that result. Why was he talking in the middle of the road? He avoided eye contact with me as he continued his conversation while I passed. I caught a burst of words that tied everything together–the why of he was there. I stopped, looked both ways and crossed a main street. Life goes on with its array of choices and the energy of people trying to make the pieces fit when they will not.
Filtered sun strikes the side of an ancient redwood by a path the leads deep into a forest. I’ve been here before and want to return…but it may be no more, erased by a needless campfire. Fences and signs block any entrance to today’s path. I can revisit the joy and beauty through memories, only. Much of life is like this. (Soberanes Canyon Trail, closed.)
Teddy was once confined in a high kill dog shelter. She had two BB’s in her left hip and her left hind leg was detached from its socket. Her fur was a matted dirty brown/grey color. She had a a history of running away. Still, when she looked at you and sensed she would not be hit, she’d smile. She was in search of a loving home and became part of our family a few years ago.
Today’s path isn’t inviting. Wide at the start, but narrow at the top with guard rails for those who cling to the sides…this is a fearful, daunting path without an end in sight. Would you step up the middle? Or, like most, look at it as you pass by on your way to somewhere else. The key here is that once you make the climb, the mystery is solved, the challenge is gone. After all this is the entrance to a parking lot and life can be a parking lot.
