It’s been a treacherous trek along a tormented path.  I realize that this path didn’t start ten years ago.  It started a lifetime ago. It’s taken this long…this many painful obstacles and drawn out suffering to finally see the ripples set in motion so many years ago.  I stopped at a clearing atop a cliff that overlooks a grand view that extends for eternity.  I know I have a long way to go and that this place is in no way my place of arrival.  But here is where I will take a breather and I will look upon where I have been.  It’s a beautiful path…all the places where I fell to my knees in pain.  The moments where I didn’t even know where to go anymore as the path seemed to disappear at times.  The steps I took that broke me down into nothingness.  The parts of the path where I screamed in rage at the sheer truth of it all.  The moments of silence that scared me to my core.  The obstacles that seemed so unforgiving. The sheer cliff wall drop offs that beckoned to me in my darkest hours.  I stand in this view of all that is behind me, all that is in front of me but most of all….all that is within me now….and all that will continue to grow inside of me.