Our time is at hand.  Can we gather the extent of our rational 
understanding and put it any kind of perspective?  Such is the 
revelation of circumstance.  Coming to grips with all the ideas 
and manufactured truths that have been placed so carefully in the 
conspicuous corners of our lives.  For us to stumble upon just 
when we got grooving.  But it didn't take long before we got 
wise to their patterns.  Who did they think they were kidding? 
It's not like we didn't have something better to do with our time.

And so we find ourselves faced with a new path.  Doors have been 
closed.  And doors have been opened.  Situations are presenting 
themselves in forms you might not readily recognize.  Realizing 
the importance of always looking twice before looking away. 
It becomes essential at some point in our lives to gather a 
comprehension of those things we have walked away from.

If only for the sake of posterity...

Just when you think you have come to the end of the road, you 
are greeted with a thousand new directions.  Standing on 
the crossroads of your past, present and future you must 
surely pause...and feel the moment.  Touch your heart and 
take a deep breath.  You're alive.  Right now.  And nothing 
will ever take that away.  And you will look ahead to gather 
some idea of where to go next.  With all the choices in the 
world before your eyes, you will realize that the important 
thing is to choose one and move along.  You have come to know 
that life is what you make it.  And you're in the mood to make 
it something special.

But you will pause before taking that next step.  And feel the 
past.  Knowing that nothing exists without the things that have 
come before.  The once-faded details swimming in vibrant color 
in your head.  Warming your thoughts and giving you a strength 
you haven't felt in many years -- a strength to move forward 
without the weight of bundled up memories.  Everything is being 
set free on this sunny corner of the street.  Flying into infinity 
and into every moment to come.  Looking over your shoulder what 
will you see?  Cause you know you'll look back one more time 
before getting on your way.  But the streets are being rolled 
up and tossed into the landfill...and somebody is boarding up 
the sky.  Looks like they're packing it in -- figuring it was 
no place to live.  Sharing a look with one of these clean-up 
crewmen and flipping him a coin in awareness to all the chance 
that has led up to this 'now'.  Tipping his trowel in your direction, 
he'll pocket the coin...to find its place alongside the other 
discarded treasures -- a worn hat, a dead rose, a rusted 
bicycle chain, the torn edge of a photograph...the gems of a 
lifetime that are around us all the time.  But it takes a keen 
eye to understand their value.  And this fella is a master.  
Grinning to himself at the thought, he'll wonder what else might 
have been left to stumble upon.

Maybe he'll even ask...

You're not there.  You've moved on.  An odd pattern of footprints 
dancing their way to the horizon.  And a wind is blowing through 
the crossing roads.  Whistling into the future...