Walking Alone

I remember a day when I was walking alone in the forest. At first the path was clean and cut very respectably. But as I walked further and further on, brambles and thorns came closer and closer to me. Slowly they ate the path away until I was cutting my own way through. Why I kept going is beyond me. Something drove me forward. It was as if my body had a mind of its own. It always wanted to see what was next, so down the path I continued. It drove me further and further, as the darkness started to descend upon the trees.

Even as my feet led me further in, my heart began to give to fear. The darkness was beginning to swallow me. The thorns that my body brought me through were tearing at me. They drew blood from my soft skin. My feet kept moving in spite of it though. My hair snagged in branches growing low. Tears flowed from my eyes. These tears were not from the pain exactly. What brought them was the fear within me. I could feel death wrap its frigid hands about me. It became a weight upon my back.

I fell to my knees in the midst of this dark and cold place. The forest seemed to have eaten me alive. There seemed to be no hope. The weight of death upon my back was too much to bear. My human soul could not take the pressure it had become. I cried out into the hopeless darkness. Over and over again I screamed at the top of my lungs. I felt nothing but torment and pain. I cried. Over and over I asked myself why I had come here. Why had I come into this forest? I should have known better! I should have gone back when the path began to disappear. Why did I go on!?

As I lay there holding myself, I remember seeing a tiny light in the distance. As it came closer and closer the light grew to the size of a man. When he had come close enough for me to see him clearly, the light seemed to disappear with the night. I stopped my crying and sat up.

He was a plain looking man. I could see nothing special on the outside. He was quite regular. But, in my hopeless situation there was nothing I needed more than him. He reached out his hand and helped me to my feet. Then he started into the woods again, before he left, he turned back and just said, "Come."

There was something about him. Something I could not identify. My body was sore from the journey we had just taken, but inside something told me that the journey would never end. I understood the darkness would kill me if I stayed. I had to follow this plain man. He had to come from somewhere, and his somewhere has to be better than my nowhere. So I walked behind him. I followed his footsteps. This was new, walking behind him. He said nothing at all, he just kept leading me. If I fell, he would return and pick me up. As the forest tried over and over to continue its punishment on my body for being within it, I took no harm, for the plain man took it for me. Ever step he guarded for me. Sometimes, I remember trying to walk beside him, or even to take my own path again, but neither worked. The forest beat me again. It had no mercy for my flesh, but then he would come and find me again. He always was there. As we walked I began to see more of him than I first did. Flesh and bones he was, but there was something else there that was indescribable. I knew he loved me, why else would he take such a beating from the forest, so I could be spared? Though the path was hard, he became more vibrant. The plain man I had seen at first faded away with the night, and was once again replaced by that pure twinkle of light I had glimpsed from my agony on the forest floor.

The path was hard, but my heart lifted as morning took its place in the world. The darkness had lost its sting on me, and death as left my thoughts. These fears vanished with the morning.

Suddenly the man stopped, turned, and looked into my eyes. Oh! His eyes were clear like water. I could see the universe in them. They rang bright with hope. I wanted to look into them forever. Why had I not noticed them before?

He touched my face gently and said simply, "Come." With that he vanished to the other side of the trees before us. I took a step towards him, and then my body spoke.

It had been silent for the longest time. I knew it was there, but it was silence by his presence, but now I heard it beckoning me to go back into the woods. My foot stepped back. My body wanted to go back, it was so strong. But I remembered. I remembered the darkness that had once overtaken me, and then I remembered the plain man, who was now not so plain. I knew it was better with him. So I took the last few steps to follow the man by myself, against my body. Every step I took away from the woods were greeted with the hateful cries from my body, but with each step ease came. 

When I emerged to the other side, there was a roar. There were so many people there celebrating. The man came up to me and embraced me. He cried tears of joy. He called me his child and held me tightly. The love I felt here was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Had I even seen anything like this before? Emotions ran high in the crowd. I cried, he cried, and the people, who's faces went on like the sea, cried out in joy for my safety.

After the emotions subsided, a hush fell across every living thing. All I heard was the heartbeat of this man who had rescued me from the darkness and from death. He wiped away my tears and simply said, “I love you."