two lives.... an epilogue.

When I was a boy a woman read my palm. I take no stock in divination but I still remember what she found. My life line is divided at midlife. One life ends and another begins.

I am at that moment now.

Today I walked through the woods behind my mother's home. I grew up with the woods nearby and today I walked through the woods just as I had many times as a boy. Only this time my faithful childhood companion, a collie named Dusty, was long gone and mother's home is empty.

Like so many times before, I soaked in the nature of the forest. I breathed in the amber hues of autumn. Like so many times before, I felt the living and dying of the fertile earth beneath my bare feet. A sense of peace... of life.... of being centered.... filled my being.

...

Yesterday was my mother's funeral. It was a beautiful ceremony. My brother gave a remembrance in the form of a film. I gave an eulogy. I was for a time worried that the words might come out jumbled and senseless under the weight of this moment. They did not. The words moved through me as if drawn from the sky and flowed from my heart free of distraction and obstacles.

One life had ended....

...

Hours later I said goodbye to a woman at the airport. A temporary goodbye. In her lovely eyes is my future... our future.... my wife... the mother of my child... my new family.

A new life begins.