Future Tracks

The boy pushed his way through the brambles and scrambled up the embankment
that led to a bed of rocks.
Into the distance, as far as the eye could see, stretched two rails on top
of treated wood beams.
His favorite place, a place to dream, a place to explore and discover.

He knelt down and placed his ear on the metal.
No sound.
“Soon,” he said to himself.
He knew the schedule by heart. The 5:30 express would blow through in a
short while, with its deep wail that could be heard five miles away.

He played his usual game of stretching from beam to beam, a little more than
a step though not quite a leap, more like a one-legged hop that propelled
him from one to the next.
He carried a long stick and smacked it back and forth against the track,
like a musketeer practicing with his sword.
To him, the tracks led to infinity, or at least a distance so great that he
could not understand that at some point they came to an end, as do all
things.
He didn’t think about it much, preferring to look to the horizon and imagine
that it went on forever.

Almost every day he saw a cat.
They lived in the brush and fed on small birds or mice.
At times, he fancied himself a hunter and would chase them with his arms
outstretched like a goblin before they quickly disappeared in the
undergrowth.
It made him feel bigger to hold his hands high and it certainly worked on
the cats.
They scampered right away and left him to his domain, king of the hill.

He sensed the rumbling long before the whistle announced the approach of the
express.
Though he longed to stay on the tracks until the last moment, he knew better
and stepped off onto the stones.
He would stay there until he could see the train, then slide into the brush
and squat like an Indian watching a steam engine.
He loved the wind burst that came with the train and the sucking effect that
it made when it flew by him.

One day, he would ride that train, he promised, as far as it went.
He wondered if it could take him all the way to the sea.
He imagined himself at the helm, in a dark blue hat with a gold brim,
standing behind the huge window at the front, staring at the world
sliding by.
“I could see everything,” he mused.

And there it was, that tiny speck that grew at high speed into a thin line.
He took his place, alert.
The metal howl pierced the air.
He grinned and let out a huge sigh.
He expected it though it never diminished his delight.

In a blur, it came and went.
He stood, watched the tail disappear and tilted his head.
How long would it be before he took that ride?
That’s A View From The Ridge
Ridgely

-Success Quotes-

“Never fight with a pig. You can’t win. You’ll just get dirty and the pig
loves it.”
Herb Capozzi
“Advice is like snow–the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon and the
deeper it sinks into the mind.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  _________________________________________________________________

-Key Points-

The child gazes down the railroad tracks and wonders if they ever end. The
child looks across the ocean’s horizon and imagines that it simply goes on
forever, that maybe one day a ship comes from somewhere, who knows where, in
the far, far away world that must obviously exist. The child dreams of
climbing onto a horse and riding across an endless plain to a mountain ridge
that scratches at the sky and a log cabin that squats atop it all, empty,
waiting for a visitor.

Then one day, someone kills Santa Claus–a sad, confusing day, generally
lacking in sensitivity–more like an attack on the heart, a day when dreams
begin to fade–more often than not in a way that only makes sense to adults,
justified, rationalized, sanctioned by religion or logic or some undefined
idea of “it’s time.”

Personally, I still believe the tracks can run forever, that I might sail
away and never stop sailing, that with a bicycle and a backpack stuffed with
two sandwiches, I might ride around the world…

What about you?
Is the path wide open before you?
Are you thinking about a journey you might take one day, a wild adventure to
somewhere far away and magical, a place that makes you smile inside, a place
that you see in your dreams?  It is “YOU” in those dreams…not someone
else…

One day, will “YOU” ride that train…?
             I hope so…

P.S. Over the next few weeks, you will hear from me more often, as we lead
up to the launch of my newest book “The Great Ones” –I have lots of cool
stuff to offer you–and look forward to connecting!