New Beginnings

If you are reading this, it means that I am not long for this world or already left it. Take heed of my words if you want to carry on my quest.

            New beginnings.  A phrase always linked to something’s end.  But do not be sad, young traveler.  If you are reading this now, it is because I am entrusting you with carrying on my quest.  You may also pass it to another if you so choose.  However, before you make your decision, let me tell you my story, just as the one before me told me his.

            I have never been rich.  It’s not that I never wanted wealth, but for me, at the tender age of fifteen, there was nothing for me beyond the humble task of milk delivery.  True, the early hours bothered me and the uneven cobblestones bruised my feet, but the open air helped me clear my head, the familiar route was somewhat of a meditation, and it really was a good living.

            One early morning, when I was approaching the Havendic Farm, I came across an old man bleeding in an alleyway.  From the look of it, he’d been stabbed, but I was no doctor.  I will never forget my panic as I tried to find a way to move him.  Eventually, I found a large wheelbarrow and, after gingerly helping him in, carefully pushed him along the road.

            The doctors could not help us; the man was not a citizen, so they were forbidden to treat him by law.  With nowhere else to turn, I carefully rushed him to my neighbor’s villa and prayed that she was still at home.  Thankfully, she opened the door and, after I explained the situation, hurried him inside to work on him.  She was no doctor herself, but her parents were medical assistants when they met, so that made her the most qualified person in the neighborhood.

            As she worked to heal him, I sat outside of their room fidgeting nervously.  I had never been so close to someone near death before, so the fact that his life had depended on me made me feel very uneasy.  No doubt I would be burdened with guilt for years to come if he died.  Deciding to make myself busy, I found his travel bag and looked through it to see if I could find his name or where to find his family.  As I rummaged through, I came across a thick, leather-bound tome that looked worn and used.  Thinking it was a family album of some kind, I opened it to see if I could find a clue on where he lived.  What I saw astounded me.

            It was a journal of experiences, from climbing a tall mountain at sunset to mingling with children playing with birds in front of a cathedral somewhere across the world.  Each of these experiences was accompanied by some sort of revelation that he had come to at that time.  I kept turning the pages and devouring his words, my head tingling and pumping from the excitement and inspiration, so much so that I was crushed when I came across the blank pages where he had not yet written.

            A noise brought me back to my senses and I turned to find my friend standing in the room with a somber look on her face.  Despite our best efforts, the stranger was too far gone to save.

            She then handed me a note that the man had insisted I get in his last moments.  It is just like the note that you are reading right now, a document of how he was found and charged with carrying on the task of filling out that leather-bound tome.  After reading it, I sat up at home for a full night, mulling it over.  If I truly wanted to continue the man’s mission, it would mean leaving everything behind to walk the world on foot.  But the more I thought about it, the more I recalled the colorful experiences in that journal.  Suddenly, the thought of delivering milk for a living was not as sweet as it once seemed.

            The next day, I packed my bags, said my goodbyes and wandered off from my town, my home.  From there, I wandered up the highest mountains, down the deepest chasms, across the thickest swamps, through the busiest metropolises, and by many more world wonders.  I would take my time and take in the place where I ventured through and every so often, that wonderful moment would happen, when the world around me gave me an epiphany about the life we were all leading.  I would record one into the tome and, when the tome was full, I would give it to the world and start a new one, like the one on my body right now.  I would tell you to read it, but something tells me you already have.

            So now it comes to you to decide if you wish to continue my journey, just as I continued the stranger’s and just as he continued the one before him.  You may find it folly.  You wouldn’t be the first.  But there is importance to this great journey.  Every day, the world changes around us, sometimes at an alarming rate.  And every so often, humanity needs to be reminded that even in the ever-changing climate of society, there is beauty and knowledge everywhere.  Even the smallest of sights, when observed carefully, can open our minds and take us to ideas that we never imagined.  Beauty is all around us, in the light, in the dark, and all the phases in-between.

Reviews

[Marie]

THis is very interesting. I was'n't going to comment on it at first; then I realized there was a great deal of truth and eaning in it.