The road that takes us back

So, as I mentioned...about a year ago (shame face), I wanted to write more.  Mostly for me, maybe for profit if I can get my act together.  And despite my terrible blogging capabilities, I have done just that.  For now I'm doing mostly essay style writing.  Observations, moments, feelings, that sort of thing.  I went to Omaha a few weeks ago which is a city I will always have a soft spot for.  It was the first place I really made "mine".  I went there for school knowing no one and nothing about the city aside from the College World Series and the zoo.  It was a great trip where I got to see old friends, visit old haunts and see how the city I love is changing.  Sitting by the river the day I drove back this is what came to me.

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I've walked the path down memory lane and I have returned renewed.  It's not a journey I make often, if ever.  You hear stories about those who took the walk and never returned.  They are content to live in static moments where laughter sounds silent and the salty tears are dry.  The ones who don't come back up the road live in a still-life dream, surrounded by ghosts both good and evil; light and dark.

I took the journey but kept the phantoms at arms length.  I looked through the windows at some of the happiest times in my life.  And unlike others who have come this way, I did not wish to go back.  I see now why I had those moments and how they've led to my current reality.

The best is yet to come.  At least that's what they tell me.  And I believe them.  Looking at these freeze frames of the past gives me hope.  Despite my given state, as hard as it can appear, there is promise.  These moments of my life do not display the sum total joy of my existence.  I have a full and beautiful life ahead of me.  If greater happiness still lies further down the path of reality than I can anticipate an adventure far greater than any I have yet undertaken.

To those who sit stagnant, holding old memories tightly, it's like standing in a stream.  You may remain fixed but the world is rushing by.  In order to reap the full measure of happiness it is important to stay often in the moment and follow the current.  Because the unknown ahead is a far greater enterprise than the known behind.