picture by Casey David

She got lost in a journey through the woods.

What used to be a casual walk down noticeable trails on well-trodden leaves and those familiar paths suddenly disappeared over the dark corner.

It wasn’t always like this. For her, the meadow and the plains with its open skies seemed so near, so within reach, and one wrong turn changed everything. The dense canopy of the forest was no place for her to trace her way back.

Was it her fault? Yes. And no. Thoughts of how she should have paid more attention, how she should have memorized the suggestions of other travellers who have walked similar paths kept racing through her mind.

Yet it has been said that to each traveller his or her own path. Apparently that’s what makes the journey more interesting.

She wasn’t always alone. She met many en route who mostly had good intentions to show her the way out of the forest and into the daylight.

Some meant well, but their directions were vague.

Some kept insisting that she try a certain way. This…or that. She went down one path only to find another that suggested another path, and so on.

And some just got lost along with her in this madness.

She wasn’t happy that she was lost. Being around her would have been irritable to say the least. She fretted, she cried, she whined, she threw her arms up and surrendered.

She had it easy; now she had to decide her own path. And the more people’s voices ring in her head the more blurred her vision became.

Why?

The road to the meadow wasn’t straight anymore. The branches and the wind have blocked her initial path, and she had to find her way through it.

And while the mist thickened outside, a rainstorm raged inside.

And she was caught right in the heart of the jungle, doing absolutely nothing.

Yet in all that thunder there was a desire to continue on the journey, to not give up, to find the meadows.

She looked up, and saw a ray of sunshine through the woods. She looked down, and saw the wild flowers beside her clench their roots to the soil with all their might.

She decided.

She got up and started walking.

She walked in the direction where the warm breeze and the open fields would finally welcome her.

CelineD got up and started writing.