Page 57 - Changes and Challenges

Dementia
Changes and Challenges
Low and dry scrub stretch away, occasionally dotted with the silhouette of a
low tree.
Dry grass and clay pans, silence to the dim horizon.
The air is neither warm nor cool but stirring slowly with a gentle predawn
breeze.
I don’t know where I am, only that I am my journeys path. I walk slowly on, my
pain melts into the dust.
Before me another road crosses my path.
A dim sign swings in the breeze. Its direction long bleached by the sun and the
elements.
It offers no direction, no guidance.
I am lost to the direction I should take, confused by the seemingly identical
choices, my path is only one of the ways.
There is no help on this road. I am confused.
Then I become aware of a presence beside me.
Darkly cloaked and blending into the darkness.
Was he there when I came to this crossroad? Does he follow me? Do I follow
him? Who is he?
He speaks, and I know him.
Like me he has no name only a purpose.
Mine is as a Journeyman, his is as a guide.
I speak with him every day.
People often call him Death, but he is only its guide.
He holds no fear for me and knows it, for when the time is right, I will follow
without fear, curious to continue my journey.
As he speaks the clouds begin to thin, and the stars begin to show though the
darkness.
The Crux shows clearly, and I have a way.
Turning, I can see the constellation of the Emu – dark amount the stars.
A dim red glow forms on the horizon and I can hear a Kookaburra announcing
a new day.
My friend waves and slowly walks away and I turn into the rising Sun and
continue my journey.
As the horizon glows.
I can see Burra the eastern grey grazing the dew-covered morning grass.
She raises her head to acknowledge my journey.
All is well with the world and I have direction.

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