I recall a memory that was etched like a holograph somewhere in me.

It has popped up recently like Princess Leia did when Luke touched R2D2.

It was dark.  I was a little boy alone in a new house, a new room.

I remember the boy trying to find his way in the dark of a strange place.

I remember the tiny cautious footsteps.

I remember my small hand reaching out in the darkness.

Tentative fingers outstretched seeking feedback from a wall,  some furniture, anything.

He needed something to help him get his bearings.

I remember the boy’s initial confidence being replaced by a growing and gradual anxiety.

It started at the base of his throat and spread up and down through his shoulders, chest, and belly.

It was not the strangeness of the house or the darkness that made him doubt.

It was the not knowing that terrorized his heart.

His heart learned fear in that space between his little brave heart’s reaching out and the wall that led him back to the familiar.

That was a long time ago but I remember.

Perhaps I have stored that memory for such a time as now,

The context is different perhaps but the terror is the same.

The hopeful part of the story is that the little boy, thumb in mouth, pressed on in spite of his trembling.

Perhaps the man will find a way to do the same.

Stay Groovy 🙂