Somewhere Along the Way

By James Kavanaugh

Somewhere  along the  way

A  persistent  voice taught  me I  was  in  competition with  every  other  man  in  the  world.

I  listened  carefully and  learned  the  lesson well.

It  was  not  enough

To find  a  loving wife  and  have  average,  happy  kids,

To see  a  sunrise  and  wonder  at  an  eclipsing moon,

To  enjoy  a  meal  and  catch  a  trout  in  a  silent,  silver river,

To picnic  in  a  meadow  at  the  top  of a  mountain

or ride  horses  along the  rim  of a  hidden  lake,

To laugh  like  a  child  at  midnight and  to still  wonder  about  the  falling stars.

It  was  only  enough

To be  admired  and  powerful  and  to rush from one success to  another,

To barely see faces  or  hear  voices, to  ignore  beauty  and forget  about music,

To reduce everything and everybody to a stereo color pattern on the way to some  new  triumph,

To rest in no victory, but to create new and more demanding goals even as I  seem  to succeed,

Until  finally I  was  estranged  and  exhausted,  victorious  and joyless, successful  and  ready to  abandon  life.

Then  somewhere  along the  way

I  remembered  the  laugh  of a  child  I  once  knew,

I  saw  a  familiar  boy wandering joyously in  the  woods,

I  felt  a  heart  pounding  with  excitement  at  the  birth  of a  new  day,

Until  I  was  in  competition with  no  one  and  life was  clear  again.

Somewhere  along the  way.