The Cave

This is an analogy of how my journey felt to me.

When our son was born, we started a journey.  We were on a long clear road, with other people, but no major hurdles in the way.  It wasn't going to be all roses, and we were sure there would be bumps, but the end was quite visible, we knew where we were headed.

Then we fell down a hole, and that hole was covered over.  We now were completely blind.  Didn't know where we were, what had happened, or which way to go.  First of all, we stood up to try and walk or get out.  It didn't work.  We fell back down, there was no way we could even stand in this place.  We are in a cave with no light and no sound.

So, we started to crawl.  Had no idea which way we were heading, but we had to move somehow, otherwise we would die!  So we crawled.  We may have gone in circles, we may have gone in a straight line.  Who knows!  We sure didn't.  But eventually, we hit a wall.  It must have been a wall, because we couldn't get through, under or over it.  But, we could use it to stand up.  So, we have now got to the wall, and we're standing up!

We can now slowly move along this wall, keeping our hands pressed surely to it.  Eventually, we find an opening.  We keep our hands pressed to the wall, but start down this new opening.  What is it? Where does it go?  Is it the right way for us?  Unfortunately, this path was a dead end.  There is no hope this way.  We go back, keeping our hands pressed to the wall.  We keep going around this wall, and eventually come to another opening.  Is this the right path? We go down a little way.  It doesn't end.  Its looking promising.  We are still in the dark, but this path feels better.

We keep walking, still pressing our hands against the wall.  Suddenly, something appears in the distance.  After so long in the dark, we have no idea what it is.  We keep looking at it, and walking towards it.  We realise after a while, that it's light!  It's an awfully long way away, and it doesn't illuminate our surroundings, but we can see it.

So this must be the way to go.  This must be the path towards the opening.  Maybe, one day, after a lot of slow walking, we might actually get to that light.  We can't see what's in the path.  We are sure that there are many rocks, boulders, and loose gravel.  We are sure we will stub our toe, slip over, and feel like giving up before we reach the end.  But we are going to keep going.

One day, I hope, we will be back on that open road.  It probably won't look the same to us anymore.  We will be more aware of pitfalls, traps, and will probably look more at our feet than the end goal.  But one step at a time, we are walking our way towards the end.  We won't win any prizes for being first.  But we will definitely be stronger, fitter, and more sure of what we can handle.

We have been in the dark, and in fact, are still there, but we are moving forward to a future with possibilities.