My past is a golden blur.

It radiates and pulses, it is alive.

If I turn around, it blinds me-

Angel rays in my eyes.

So instead I turn towards the darkness

that lies in front of me.

It waits for me.

It calls to me.

I look to both sides-

I see friend and foe

I see heros and heroine addicts.

All of them take steps into the dark-

They are just like me.

They are me.

I see a friend falter-

I watch a friend fall...

Then a man, glowing of his own light

walks over and holds out his hand.

And he says,

"I cannot pull you up alone.

You must first take my hand."

I see my friend hesitate;

Tired of the exhaustion

Tired of the unknown

Tired of wandering in the dark.

But then!

I see a hand unfold

A connection the likes of which have not been seen

Since the day God sparked Adam to life-

As a part of Himself.

As the man lifts my friend to their feet, he looks:

I can sense his warmth

I can feel it engulf me

I can see him banish the dark and the unknown.

I am lost in love.

He says, staring into my friend's eyes,

"There is always the choice to get up.

There is always the choice to continue with the journey.

Most important of all, there is the choice to take my hand-

It is always outstretched and waiting."

And all of us on our paths stop

We watch as the man, burning with the brilliance of

True Enlightenment

Forges fearlessly into the dark

Until he is nothing more than the tiniest pinprick

in the distance.

My friend

Begins shuffling forward

As we all do-

Made One by our journey

Our pasts a golden blur behind us

Our futures nothing but a pinprick in the distance.