Struggling, resisting wiping the first tear escaping my soul for decades, I restrain. She’s so pure. Too real. Pain escaping like nuclear fission of the atom bomb. I am not bent, I’m broken.

Broken is broken. There is no one more than another. You can be bent to extraordinary measures of pain, but this does not change you. Once broken, things will never be put back together the same way. Everything is different.

Humbleness crushes individualism and ego. Silent senses of others like you are comforting. I’m more careful than I once was because I’m afraid. I don’t want to break again. I will, quite sure of this. Lifestyles of the chosen: roads less traveled, blazing paths, territory owned by risk and reward.

Whilst others have faith they know for sure their roadmap from God, we peek around dark corners to see what is real and what is not. Sometimes not seeing our feet, blinded by the chaos of life’s thickets and thorns. Nothing less than a fence protecting us from a jagged cliff. One of us is sure to slip and fall, breaking yet again and again.

See your sister curled in a fetal position, at the bottom, in the valley of rising water, and without thought jump. Because once you’ve been there, you already know, they need not be alone.

Listening carefully and speaking with care is priority over who’s right and who is not. Simplicity and free time are valued more than bigger and faster. Circles shrink. The world has clarity and is good. You can see the fog snaking through the canyon, more stars fall from the sky and the flowers and the children, wow, they are so delicate. The moon is more important, as are others.

There is only one thing I know for sure, I know nothing at all. A great poet once said, “Life ain’t easy” only followed by another living more in the present, “Today was a good day.”

Charles Kochel fly-fishes. Currently exploring the Ozark Mountains, he enjoys laughing, baseball, good food, and mindful people.

He writes, tries to pick mandolin and purchased a pair of running shoes today.

Sometimes he can be found wandering the streets and paths of Northwest Arkansas, sometimes he can’t be found at all. Carpe’ Diem, may be your only chance.