A Thousand Summers 4

Saturday Evening Posts

January 31 to February 6 Edition

A Thousand Summers 4

Christmas came. I love that special feeling in the air.

I see Yuletide differently now, like a migratory bird sensing the advent of winter.

This is the time when I stop, step back and review my life. I do it with as much detachment as I could. It's like somebody outside looking in, watching myself and seeing somebody else.

I ask myself the questions inward-looking people normally ask only during moments of abysmal existential angst: Where am I? Where do I really want to go? And perhaps the most soul-stirring: what kind of person have I become?

I feel keenly that my life is an ongoing journey. It gives me comfort that, wherever I may be, literally and metaphorically, I won't be there forever. The road is endless and the world is infinite.

I cannot imagine myself living a conventional life purely to satisfy other people's double-standard expectations. Still, I am sort of conscious of the human yearning to be where I can feel I belong, to finally find a place I can call home.

I have always yearned for a simple life even during my bohemian teenage years. Then at the end of that December came an epiphany like a thunderbolt: I already have it.

To Be Continued Next Saturday