a deeper metaphor

The past years have been eye-opening. I have seen the sun in a way I never had. I have felt the breeze in a way I never thought possible. I have been forced to accept difficult truths. I have learned more than I thought I could in places I was looking to learn nothing at all. You have shown me the way, and I am gathering my things.

I still don't know exactly where I am headed, but I am heading there all the same.

This road I was hoping would lead into the calm pasture has led into the desert, into the valley, into the wasteland, into the high country where the air grew thin and my mind grew wider and wider and wider. I have been pressed down and spread. I have been pulled and stretched out. I have been turned over and have seen the sky.

I hadn't realised until now that I had forgotten where the sunlight comes from.
Now I see it, feel it, know it is the sun this time. And in the fresh light, this seedling is just showing about the surface of the mud, this flower just budding on the fragile branch.

Anything could happen from here.
We could go anywhere, still.

But we are finding the road that our feet are most pleased to walk along, and we are learning the ways we can't go, and we are seeing the direction of the wind from here, and we are trying to move with it. We can see the river flowing, can hear it moving along the riverbed, over rocks and dirt, flowing down to wherever it goes. And we find that we are better when we walk along it, walk with it, get in every now and again.

I think we'll follow this water, no matter where it goes.
It could go anywhere because it goes everywhere and touches everything.
This river is only one part of it and it has led us this far.
However it gets to the ocean is the road we will go.

And one day, we'll smell the sea.