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Yesterday Down The Road
Yesterday, I met a man traveling down the road. His smile was crooked.
His teeth yellowed by time and too many cigarettes smoked carelessly and too close together. His clothes were worn and hung like rags from his rail frame. Yet, the sinew
of once strong muscles remained. And his eyes still held a gleam of humor and the tenderness of many things seen of many times when cold winds had knocked against him,
almost putting him down for good.
But he, always having hope, had risen to receive another blow a chuckle in his throat a merry robust laugh
that said "You can't get the best of me yet." But on this day his eyes held a deep sadness the sadness of all that he had lost all that he had longed for all the loves and weary travels
that had come to nothing even as his hope had soared. But, he seemed resigned. He seemed solid. And as he opened his mouth to speak to me I realized he had no voice He no longer had words
to express the joy the sadness the longing. For now, in his strong yet battered state all was one. And there was nothing more to say.
I realized as I stood there just looking at him
he with his hands in his pockets me in my expensive three-piece suit that somehow there was no difference between us. Yet he, for all his losses had gained a measure of dignity of sureness
of sweet strength that I did not possess. He seemed made of dust a golden dust the residue of a life fully lived of energy spent well of love having been given at any cost.
Then, suddenly, his eyes seemed on fire his whole body ablaze with some holy energy that soon turned to pure white heat and even more suddenly he was gone.
My body trembled. My hands shook.
And when it was over and the road was empty of his presence I felt a glow within as I had never known an almost transcendent feeling that I, too, was pure energy energy of love of hope
and of something more than I could ever dare express. I felt whole for the first time.
And somehow I knew that his spirit had entered me that he had given up his life to me
and that now his wisdom his vision his great compassion lived in me. A great spirit that dissolved all boundaries.
And I knew then that the life I had been living was mere folly mere illusion a child's life in adult body.
And so I left the road. I walked away
not knowing yet where I was going only knowing that my life as it had been would be no more and that the journey ahead while unsure and still filled with pebbles, rocks, and giant boulders
to be moved aside would at last bring me to a quiet place a resting place a place where birds no longer sang. Yet, in the silence there would be more sweet music than I had ever known.
And in that moment as I walked away from the road as I took off my jacket and slung it almost casually over my shoulder I could feel a smile growing on my face a lightness in my step
and I cried out I love you I love you I love you and I was happy.
© Farrell Dyde
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