Lost and Found

"As to the how it is often my mystery, yet today I arrived here, back at the beginning. Lost. And tired. So very tired. Wandered a lonely while, thirsty through the heavied desert 'til, from beyond the shadows, heard a call of my name. Faking an interested face I follow, lured by the dark shadows - I am comfortable in the dark. Following. Turning a corner, a corner lined with trees. Green trees. Familiar trees. And, more tired, I bask in their life-breathing shade. Stronger then, venture into the forest's haloed hollows and by sun, shining through reaching limbs, I am warmed, not even realizing that I was cold - oh I was so cold. Continuing, I follow the summoning, even loving, voice, leaving the safety of the darkness behind. Arriving at a river's edge, a nonweathered face looks back at me. A peaceful face. A beautiful face. And I hear the voice. I know this voice, sounding familiarly…me. It was me? It was me. It was always me...in those telling eyes! Afraid, looking away briefly. Turning back, I am met with a smile. Wow, what a smile! I remember that smile. There was a time that I liked to smile. I was there? I was there. I was always there...in that invincible smile! In the still. Wanting to run, but stopped by a laugh. Startled by it at first. It had been so long since that laugh, yet I am brought home by the sweetness of that laugh. I was laughing? I was laughing. I was always in the laughing...that contagious laugh! And there, then, what was lost was found in the reverent reunion. And I was no longer a stranger to myself." - Ryan Roxley