Sediment Within the Soul.

From mist-laden paths where childhood wandered,

rubber balls leapt like red heartbeats across cracked sidewalks,

bicycle wheels spun silver halos through summer air,

sneakers kicked loose stars from gravel,

and Vibram soles pressed temporary signatures

into earth already preparing to forget.

Then the city claimed its place in memory:

taxi horns fractured the dusk like shards of brass,

subway rails groaned beneath the streets

like ancient beasts hauling the burden of millions.

Above…

Illuminated screens bloomed in human hands,

small artificial galaxies pulsing through the dark,

while pigeons drifted between towers of glass

like gray thoughts crossing the restless mind of time.

Imprinted were mother's gentle hands,

soft as rain sinking into thirsty soil;

father's confidence, a steel bridge spanning uncertainty;

grandfather's trust, a weathered oak gripping stone;

grandmother's faith, a lantern refusing extinction

in the teeth of a relentless wind.

Their gifts became sediment within the soul,

layer upon layer of unseen strength

forming bedrock beneath every future step.

Now memory scatters through digital clouds,

each word a polished fragment of non-eroding driftwood

carried upon currents neither river nor sea.

The accepted and denied,

the cherished and discarded,

the doors opened and the doors closed,

gather like tides shaping a coastline not yet mapped.

Perhaps destiny is not engraved upon us at birth,

nor hidden in the stars awaiting discovery.

Perhaps it is fashioned slowly,

from every wound and wonder,

every welcome and refusal,

every loss that hollows space for growth.

And still…

The young spirit rises,

bright as dawn reflected on new water,

believing what experience eventually confirms:

we are not born completed,

but become ourselves by degrees,

building destiny from the endless conversation

between the world that receives us

and the world we dare to create,

believing with good reason

that the next wave may carry another chance

to become more of the becoming destiny’s purpose.