Paths

Skipping gaily through life,

plodding through tasks and chores,

strolling along a quiet riverside,

side by side, loving, learning.

 

 

Tumbling head over heels down the steep rocky slope,

bouncing and bleeding, one cushioning and softening the blows for the other,

then a roll and the pain reverses.

We'll crash full-tilt into the grassy meadow at the base of the slope, but not today.

Today we tumble.

 

 

Straining against the weight of the world,

we climb.

Up and up, higher and higher, striving, reaching, grasping, clawing,

as the burden shifts and presses down upon us,

we climb.

Muscles slip and burn and a misstep,

becomes a kick in the teeth.

Pain burns and drives us up.

Pain clenches and pulls us down.

Love carries us forward, inevitably, persistently, tenaciously,

as we abrade and heal.

Our journey is fixed,

But our steps are not,

We climb.