Life-Mapping

How telling,
That which is thought lost
In folds of one’s map.

Easily forgotten traverses
Of forbidden goals
Remembered well
Where creases squeezed tight
Once shown clear one's youthful terrain.
Those unmarked paths taken off the beaten track,
Beset by thorns and poison,
Rivaled only by the indomitable spirit of immortal dreams,
Daring defiance once lived with abandon,
A course memory left marked on the map,
Now a deep wear-torn crevasse in memoriam.

Came later goals.

Lofty peaks.

Longer treks.

Rest stops feared and postponed.


Finally…


Challenges tempted the ever higher,
Pathfinder instincts gave direction
Around and across tributaries
Of life’s melting adolescence.

How telling,
The transition,
The traverse
Across wiser routes,
The gaze upon pinnacles
One once knew were unconquerable.

How revealing,
These mountainous passages,
Life's ever changing topography,
The rock-hard experience ultimately dispersing to scree,
Tapering to a valley floor Time's patient erosion
Marking a well spent experiential acclimatization
For the expedition readying its next venture
Outside one's neatly folded map.

With so many uncharted experiences
Remaining among the eternal challenges,
First steps await.

More life-mapping
Begins its ever-folding rewards…

Again.