The Originial: No Title

Between the land and the sea there are the roads that we travel to get where we need to go, where we want to go, to take us on the adventure to find ourselves and though the ride is rough at times, sometimes it lead us to our heart’s desire.

The first rays of the rising sun gently woke me from my restless sleep in a dark, cold motel room. I brought myself up and prepared to get back on the road. As I was checking out with the desk clerk he said “The cost of turning your back could be more than you can bare. The past can’t be undone, but time always reveals the bitter taste of loosing everything you held close. Unless you can find forgiveness in your heart.” I looked at him as if he had just seen into my heart, but it was too late to turn back. I watched the old motel fading in my rear view and all I could think of was the desk clerk’s words.

Many hours and miles passed and the radio seemed to play the same sad love song over and over again. Yet the scenery was a glorious sight. I couldn’t fight the urge to make stops along the way to admire the beauty Mother Nature has laid before us. It was the first time I had ever noticed how beautiful and wonderful the world that surrounded us was. The many shades of green that painted the forests along the horizon, the way that the lakes reflected the sky making it impossible to tell where the earth ended and the sky began, the birds chirping welcoming the dawn, the calf struggling to its feet right after birth. I was amazed by what I had seen it reminded me of how I blissful I wanted my wedding day to be. It opened my eyes to a whole new perspective on life and love, the way I wanted to present myself.

As I was coming through a small town I passed a cemetery where the town had gathered to lay three sons down to rest. They were soldiers in the United States Army. Once again I was disheartened. But to see those three young men laid in the ground survived by their parents, their grandparents, their wives, and children made me think. What if that was me burying my loved one. Right then and there everything sunk in. The beauty of life was short lived but miraculous, if living was a permanent state it wouldn’t be as wonderful or as precious to us and we wouldn’t see the world around us the way I did that day.

The desk clerk was right; it wasn’t too late to turn back. I hurried back to the shore. As I passed each of my stopping places I became more and more eager. Soon I could smell the salt in the air, I could feel the warmth of the sun as it set, and the sand under my feet. The chairs, the flowers, and the altar they were still there and the man I loved was right there waiting. I told him of everything I had seen on my car ride and that I hoped one day we could take our first steps of our lives’ journey together but not today. The next day we got in the car and we traveled from one coast to the next.

Seven weeks after our supposed to be wedding day, he boarded a plane that took him overseas to the middle of a hell fire. He was there fighting for his country and fighting to come home to me for five and a half months. But fate was cruel; he died two over seas one week before he was to return to me, two weeks before our rescheduled wedding day. In my mind he will always be that beautiful face that made me laugh under the starry skies in Texas , on the beaches of California , in the mid afternoon rain in Florida, and underneath the neon signs in Tennesee.

That drive changed my life and my entire perspective on life and love and all aspects of it. I lost the one I loved more than life its self, but would he have been as beautiful to me if he was immortal. Between the land and the sea there are the roads that we travel to get where we need to go, where we want to go, to take us on the adventure to who we are and though the ride is rough at times sometimes it lead us to our heart’s desire. That is what he taught me. Our paths split for now but he will always be with me on my journey