THE FIRST STEP

Sometimes the first step is the hardest…

…even when the incline is not so steep, and the switchbacks cross your path, like the mark of Zorro burned onto your ankle at a bad tattoo parlor in a tourist town, you just put on your socks, cover it up, and keep on walking, despite the sweat and the soreness, into a field of promises, until moving becomes easier than standing still and you’re filled with curiosity, as the colors of the paintbrush, lilies, and endless open sky tease you like the first time that you meet the lover of your dreams and whatever comes next is everything, it’s waiting on the rocky path you’re walking, past blankets of wildflowers into a clearing past the pines, where you realize your promise, glimpsing the impossible, a sea of crystal icebergs bobbing in clear water, cradled by the mountains in the middle of summer and you come to close perfection and breathe….

Sometimes the first step is the hardest….

But without it you have nothing