Another World Below

   When I was around the age of eighteen, I lived with my mother in a run down trailer, way back in the mountains. I had run away from all the problems of living with my father, only to find a whole new set with my mother. She was on a very low fixed income and we had very little money. We lived far outside of town and had no vehicle. This made my resources for change very limited. My everyday existence became a dreadful rerun of the days, weeks, and months before.I was practically still a kid. As teenagers we think we know it all, but I didn't. I had very little life experience to draw from to come up with a plan to get myself out of this terrible predicament.
   Many days I would go for a walk along the rail road to try to clear my head and think of a way out. There was a small murky creek that ran along side of the tracks. Along it's muddy banks there was a big  flat rock that I would always rest at. Many people used this rock for fishing, but I would use it as a place for thinking. Many days the sunlight would hit the calm water just right that it made a wonderful reflection like this one in the picture. Many times I would sit for hours, looking into the reflection as if it was a gateway into a parallel universe. I would imagine that if I concentrated hard enough and believed strongly enough, I could jump in and break through to the other side. I would enter a whole new world and leave all my problems behind.  It was a way to escape for a moment. A sort of meditation.
   So now when I see a reflection like this, it reminds me of this terrible period of my life. Yet more importantly, it gives me joy to know that no matter how hopeless things may seem, in the end things will be okay. Things will work themselves out if you just continue to hang in there and act on every opportunity that comes your way.