The Next Step

The Next Step

has always come to me.  

Even if I ignore it

It whispers in soft voice

never leaving my side

even though I fight it.

Some steps are easy to take

some steps require all of my effort

and even then I may fall short.  

First it was quit my job.

Then it was give up my TV.

Now it is sell my house.

Each step has been better than the last

though this Next Step is proving

the most challenging yet.

After all, it has been 10 years in this place.

I know it well; the sights, the sounds,

the people, the neighborhood.  

It is my 'creature comfort'.  

But as an animal grows used to its cage

so I have grown used to mine

and have used comfort as an excuse to

stop my growth.  

I think I moved to the suburbs

much too young.  

The beckoning now calls to me from

unrealized fruitions of times past and

market dynamics.

It might not be the sexiest of reasons

but it is the perfect storm.

What is after this?

That is the hard part -

I have no idea.  

Part of me wants to

Plan and toil and sow

And make what comes next

My own endeavor and my own purpose.  

But in my journey I have realized

I am in unison with this wise Guidance

But not above it.

If I attempt to control and manipulate

I will talk myself into staying.

Or make a move off the chosen way.  

I sat with TV in my house for so long

Though it felt so uncomfortable.

It was not a bad thing in and of itself

But for whatever reason it was

Against what I value.  

When I sold my TV

I felt trepidation and fear

But also elation,

For I was following the path.  

I gave up what was comfortable

For what was uncomfortable;

The known for

The unknown.  

I fear that if I do not move on

From this place I know so well

The same will happen.  

My years will grow stale.

I will have a good life

But not the life meant for me.  

So thus, without knowledge of

Where the Next Step may lead,

It is time to follow the calling

Of the Still Small Voice

Which beckons and calls me forward.

The Next Step will reveal

The Next Step thereafter.  

It is the path unknown

But it is my path all the same.  

• MR, 7/2/18