It was night forever. It seemed to never end. And it was completely dark too. And cold. Very cold. I remember that. There was lots of time to think about things. But there was little to contemplate. Infinity. Eternity. Coldness. And then infinite eternal cold.
Suddenly and magically, it finally was dawn. The light was upon us and gave us energy. The light fed us and kept us warm. It brought us to life.
Things always seem smaller when you go back. I was smaller then too, I guess. The world seemed bigger to me then. And yet, I now know that it has grown. The world has grown faster and bigger than me, faster and bigger than I can know.
Life was simpler then. It was easier to get around. Everything you needed was right there. And if you couldn’t find it, it wouldn’t be a big deal to make it. I could make what I needed. I did.
You could find your way because the path was well beaten. It was the same path you had always taken. The same path your parents had used. I remember my father told of his father taking that same path. I’ll bet even grandfather told of his father on that path. That is why I remember where to go.
At one end of the path was sleep, at the other end, food. Another path was to water, and yet another led to a great view of the valley.
But there are other paths. Maybe they are less traveled, but they go somewhere. Others travel them to different places at different times.
As I walk the path, trees appear before me and recede behind me. Groves appear and disappear. Yet forests are never seen in whole, only in part. We assume they go beyond our view ahead and behind. What we learn farther down the path changes everything we knew about the path already traveled.
I learn from seeing more of the same path with its turns, rises and falls. Always the same and always different.
We live at the edge of the forest, where the trees shrink to shrubs and then to grass, and where the river comes to sit at the edge of the lake. The edges are rich and interesting. That is what makes us rich and interesting.
There were others, but not equal to us. We were given this special place and special ability to live in this place. There are none equal. It has always been this way. It will always be this way. We are the centre of a beautiful place where we belong. We are strong in our place. We continue.
That is the way it was told to me when we arrived a very long time ago. Nothing has changed. But things are different. We know more. The more we learn, the more the world changes. That is the universal law.
Now we consume. We sleep. We rise and eat again. We have light and dark. There are paths to walk and places to go. We are creatures of routine differences.
That is what they said when we arrived not long ago. That is what I am telling you now.
That is what it was like when I lived. So I am told. By one who was. And he is now gone, and then returned. If I remember right.
Randal Adcock 