A journey from 6 to 60….

Incredible!!! Yes yes, I’ll go through it once again..

But yes I’ll pause a little bit,

For as I stand at the beginning of the long bridge, once again,

I realise it has a lot to unfold, but to do that I have to let go,

Of things I experience on the way.

I saw myself at 6, the age of impressions.

my slate was blank till then,

I could choose what I wanted to fill in.

Or could just move on, having it blank all along.

For do you not think as I do, that each day is new,

Each day is a strife, never like the one you left behind.

So how could I fill it up with memories of the yesterday, yester year, and a yester life?

The bridge is beckoning, asking me to walk through again, minus the baggage,

Come on walk light, run and fly, for as you reach the end of the bridge, the wings of freedom will set you free.

Will I succeed, I ask myself?

It made me pause, was this bridge a runway? A runway to a take off.

What if I couldn’t take off?

What if the baggage bogged me down?

Could I just shed it now?

Well I looked in to see what it had, and the pandora box, revealed the me, I didn’t know .

For in the baggage was a hurt I felt when I just turned 6, and that was when an aunt ticked me off.

Thinking I was superior, I tried to play a prank, and she thought I ought to get a spank.

Well thats what good aunts do, teach their wards, but oh dear me, I just learnt it wrong.

I packed it in my bag and carried it all the way, and saw to it that other incidents, added on, like a coating all around,

And as I reached my teens, it grew heftier till I mistook it for me.

As the hurt filled my slate, there were others that followed suit.

Anger and fear of rejection, conditioning, and experiences left their mark,

All snuggled comfortably in my treasured bark.

Then I saw myself huffing and puffing, wondering if I would stop,

For the brook by the meadow, temptingly beckoned.

I hastened my steps to reach out to it, when i met a man on my way,

He was rude and mean, and that got me to scheme.

I opened my pandora box and let out the steam.

I saw myself patting my back, feeling elated.

“Now you see, I told myself, it’s worth the effort,

The baggage is not a waste after all.”

It warded him off, and as I walked off with a beam,

I suddenly realised that I had warded my chance to be by the brook.

I trudged on , the rough road ahead, blaming my fate which put me on a hook.

Till one day I fell, deep into slush, and sighed and cried,

” Oh why only me”, what have I done wrong, for all I did was to walk along,

But walk I did with the baggage on, all along.

And now I was in the midst of mud, my shoulder hurt, my legs stiffened and weak,

I gave up, I had failed and life seemed bleak, and now I was at the brink.

Putting my baggage down, I got up one last time, and reached the precipice.

Bracing to jump, I closed my eyes , One, Two, Three and I was free,

Well friends, it was that split moment, when consciousness intervened, and then,

I threw not myself but the bag of the self I thought was me.

The bag in which I held on to the goal of success, the one which lost me to the spirit of it.

I felt light as I walked on , reached the bridge, and saw a lit up one.

And then I knew I was on the runway to the flight to freedom and joy.

The unwanted baggage of hurts, deceit, despise, and resent, made my journey

fearful, with anger and despair at rejection.

And now as I see it all, its all gone,

Setting competition aside, I sit astride on the vehicle called life.

As it takes me ahead through its journey to love.

Seeing it all I wonder though, did it require me to pass through with all the baggage ,

To realise all I had to do was to shed it like garbage.

Life looked at me winking, ” Wise ass, you know it all now, so let be for now.

But remember to remember not to forget, that a baggage which bogs you down, is garbage to be shed” it said.

And remember you do not have to wait till 60 to do so.

I looked at it in the eye, and saw something I’d never seen before…

It smiled down at me, and for the first time I saw there was no bridge anywhere, I was on a runway to now here..

A flight without a take off or landing..

Looking at it I simply said ” Life You Damn Well Rock”…