Life's Hidden Path

I rise from my bed of fir boughs, and brush some of the flat needles from my right cheek. I had tucked myself into a crevasse between two large boulders and I now listen. I hear the sound of a chittering Red Squirrel and the song of a Cardinal. It takes a moment to get up, and stretching and shaking my limbs I embrace the morning. I make my way to the stream and see the forest green canoe, hull worn from past adventures, that brought me here on the night of the storm. Brought me to a place that felt right. As the storm settled I did too. In my wild and frightened state during the storm I could see the forest around me in a new way. I saw the mesmeric swaying of the ferns, I felt in my chest the low creaking of the Hemlock and the White Pine, I saw the water playfully lapping at the shore, and I felt at peace. And so I stayed.

I forgot all about my previous sense of purpose. The need to travel my set path to its destination now is a seemingly trivial goal. I stayed and I lived. I had no worries, only fundamental desires allowing for me to ponder. Ponder my island, my nature, my life. My island's great diversity filled many days with the exhilaration of exploration. Discovery of a new species of trees, a new hill, a mysterious cave, a cliff face over the water. From the perch of rocky wall that stretches up from the water my eyes strain to see the distant shores that make up the borders of my world. I think of my life before. Before I found my Island and myself. I have learned to leave my physical self behind as I settle into the depths of my thoughts on that cliff. But before I do I notice a Chickadee, its small body flapping its way farther and farther from the world I have come to know. And then the small bird crosses over. It goes beyond what I know, breaking through the barrier between these two worlds I have come to distinguish. I feel sadness for that bird because it has left the island. An unknown force put me on this hidden path and for that I am grateful. I have come to discover my true self on and because of this island, and that will change my life forever.