The Beginning

The year does not matter. It is enough to say that populations considered their politicians corrupt, cities over crowded, violence on the rise, mental health in decline, and uncertainty certain. These concerns led many to abandon hope in society and lose themselves to lonely and dreary allies of life, living yet not alive. Others could not sit by and see their hopes of the future crushed they trudged ahead determined to rise above the odds and carve out their legacy in the face of all opposition. Some exceeded their original goals, others finding the beating of the waves too much to content with abandoned the objective and told themselves all manner of messages to convince themselves they had been wrong and life was meant to be this way. They live but do not thrive. Many more, the largest in number, follow like the waves of the sea, some mighty engulfing others some tiny and barely perceptible, but all refracting and changing course with each new wind and obstacle in the way.

These larger global concerns are not all that tugged upon the hearts of mankind. For each day the burdens of quenching thirst, covering meals, paying bills, managing bank accounts, avoiding traffic, keeping up with appliances that keep failing, laundry, house work, job responsibilities, staying in the know of topical information that is outdated a day later let alone the important topics debated on capital hills, on talk shows, and through a million podcasts wore out both mind and soul

It was too much for many, a nuisance for many more. Yes there were those who seemed to have it all together who managed to juggle all the needs of life and excel in all they do. But cameras and posts conveniently edit out the relationships hanging by a thread, the friendships of smiles that lack depth, the financial, mental, physical, emotional struggles that like a volcano need just the right combination of circumstances to send a picturesque mountain-scape into utter shambles.

Not all was doom and gloom, for in a storm there is shelter, there are breaks in the tempests, there are helpers in the night, there are angels among us, both seen and unseen that lift and support. You see this all the time, if you simply observe. It is a friendly hello, a door held open, letting someone merge onto the needed exit, the offering of a chance to excel, an expression of trust, it is in a hug, a kiss, tears shed in empathy, a moment where two people make a lasting connection, when shattered hearts apply the first balm of forgiveness, the brining of cookies, the accepting of service.

Against this backdrop is where our story begins. A world known to us all through our own journeys through its meandering, diverging, and converging paths. Where each day brings both the expected and, more commonly, the unexpected. Sometimes those shifts happen quickly, while at others the foundations of change subtly form with a thousand grains of sand deposited one by one almost too small to perceive yet obvious when looking back. That which is anticipated, as well as that which is not, may fall on either side of the coin of blessing or misfortune. Nevertheless, regardless of the obverse or reverse the coin is of the same value.