As i walk along this long road i give pause for a moment, letting the cool breeze waif past me. My feet are hot and sore, sweat drips down my brow, and my breathing is a little harder than before. My clothes are dusty and well worn, but my eyes are bright.
On the ground to my side is the shadow that has walked with me all this ways. As i have traveled it has changed, sometimes growing darker as the sun beat down more, and sometimes less as the sun passed behind clouds.
Behind me are my footprints in the dirt. I know that the ones i see are fresh so the impression lasts, but as time goes on, the wind will erase most of these. Sometimes though, my foot steps fall within the recesses of mud, and these i know will last, yet they too will eventually be wiped away. It is the way of things.
I recall the things i have seen on this road i have walked. Trees the color of crimson and stretching to the sky; wild flowers of many colors blooming before my eyes; rivers and streams as clear as crystal, twinkling in the sunlight. But there there have been other things too, dark things, thunderstorms in the distance, dry cracked earth that is so parched and without water that it looks like the world will crumble away; and creatures struggling to survive, only to be plucked up and carried away by some cruel predator.
In front of me, lies the road that i have still not walked, but which i will soon enough. It is uncertain and sure to be fraught with many wonderful things, and many horrible things as well. It would be easy enough to simply sit down here where I am and go no further, but even in doing that i know that i am not leaving things unchanged, i am simply changing them in a different way, and my path will come to its end regardless.
No, my path lies forward, so with a deep breath and a smile i place one foot in front of the other and start forward once more, nervous, anxious and excited to see what else this road has to offer.
