Dreamland

View From The Edge

I'm on my way to visit a friend that I haven't seen in years. His house is on a Circle Drive, a steet that loops around a hilltop. (Technically, the hill he lives on is a drumlin, a low rise formed of glacial debris during the last ice age. But that's beside the point...)

My truck is in the shop, so I'm walking to get there. It's a beautiful day, late morning, and the sun is shining. I'm sweating from the effort of climbing the hill when I reach his house. (I really need to get in better shape.)

We socialize for a while, drinking Cokes and eating junk food that we nuke up in an ancient microwave.

"Hey Ken, is that the same microwave you had when we were in high school?" I ask.

"Yeah, my Dad got it back in the late 60's. One of the first ones ever made, and it still works great."

Time seems to be speeding up, it's now late afternoon.

"I'd better get going, gotta get back and check on my Mom," I say.

"You should walk the rest of the way around the loop on your way back, the view out there is really amazing," Ken says

"OK, sounds good. I'll give you a call when my truck's out of the shop."

I start walking. Time is speeding up more now, it seems to be taking me forever to get to the midpoint of the circle, and the sun is starting to go down. I feel like I'm getting older as I walk, more tired with every step. I wonder how I'll ever finish this journey.

"If a car drives by, maybe I can stick my thumb out and hitch a ride," I think to myself.

I reach the midpoint of the circle, and sit on the curb rest. The sun is setting behind the hill, and behind me the stars are starting to come out.

I turn around and I can see the Milky Way overhead. All of those stars! Every speck of light visible a sun, with comets and asteroids and planets of it's own. The vastness of the universe, overwhelming, humbling, yet empowering in it's own way.

I realize I am only one man, an insignificant mote in the eye of the Creator, if you believe in such. And yet I feel a Oneness, a Belonging with the whole. I smile with my entire Being as I realize this, feeling a high that leaves any drug induced euphoria in the dust.

I look out at the road in front of me. Darkness has overtaken it, along with an enveloping fog. The sky reaches down to meet me, galaxies and constellations spiraling into the fog on the road ahead. The road has become one with the night sky!

I hesitate for a moment, feeling the pull to become one with the Universe, realizing if I go I won't be coming back.

I step off the curb, fragmenting into the Void, and I'm gone...