He creeps slowly through the underbrush, too afraid to make much noise, but too proud to hold back any movement. The leaves crunch under his feet with each precise step he takes. The brisk breeze blows across his shoulders, but he seems not to notice. His soaked pant legs drag along behind him like a wrinkled, tattered bridal gown. Light is fleeting from his field of view, but it is no matter; he has walked this path countless times. Just last year, he was caught in the middle of a blizzard at this same point along the trail and he made it out without even opening his eyes. His heart didn’t even miss a beat. His mind drifts into the past. It was in this place, a long, long time ago, that he had once forgotten the monstrous world and allowed his mind to slip steeply into existence.

As that day resurfaces in his thoughts, on this self-proclaimed journey, his mind is thrust into his present surroundings. The aural sensations that fill his ears flow through him like every breath he takes. Chirping birds surround him and crackling branches and swaying leaves bring a delightful movement to the seemingly motionless forest, but the most powerful part of the entire experience is the sound of silence he feels inside of his soul. Everything seems to disappear as he searches deep inside of himself. He thinks over the events of the past few days, and he realizes that they mean nothing to him. Nothing at all. Nothing really matters. This is the only solution he finds in this simple assessment. He lets it go. He takes a detour off his path, exploring unknown territory. He sits down. Lost. No longer worrying about who he is, where he is going, or even where he is, he allows himself to become lost. Lost to others, lost to the world, lost to himself. He no longer questions why the rain has started to fall. He no longer has that deep passion inside of himself, that overwhelming thirst for something that he will never achieve. By letting himself wander, in the woods, in his mind, in his heart, he finds it easier… no, not easier. More wholesome. He finds the journey more wholesome, and that is all he needs.