Aquamarine

I'm a pile of blankets on the couch. It's the day after Thanksgiving, but I was away in Mexico when we celebrated it last week. 

I'm on a journey again, or at least the beginning of one. I'm about to head into the 'forest', but I'm not ready yet. I'm pacing back and forth at the entrance like a neurotic hiker making sure he has all of his unnecessary equipment.

Around my neck is an aquamarine stone given to me by a sincere and true friend, a stone that had been missing for a few years now come to think of it. It was lost somewhere in our house, I could sense it.

Every now and then I would be reminded of my stone and suddenly feel the urge to get my precious item back, but I was never successful in finding it beneath our family's clutter. It wasn't until recently when I saw a funny but crude reel on Instagram (I don't wanna sound _____ or anything, but I love rocks), and for some reason that was the one that made me want to find my aquamarine. And, I did. It was hiding somewhere in one of my wife's sacred boxes filled with other important elements of our travels together. 

This stone is not a matter of travel to me, not exactly. This stone has part of my soul in it, and I long to free it during this next year or so. It has a lesson teach me and a store to tell. Ari would be into that. He did something to this stone to look after me, and he's always been a glowing light to my path.

I think I'm almost ready to enter the forest. I crossed a rapid river to arrive here upon the forest's mysterious entrance, and I'm equally ready to leave my woes on the other side. Yet, it makes wonder if those woes are entangled around my inherent need for solitude. How to I enter this forest without leaving my son behind or endangering him? It makes me wonder even more deeply if he is to wander through his own forest, and how I could protect him on his journey. He is on his own path, yet our worlds are adventure in their own colorful universe.

The forest is a strange and scary place for these reasons. Enter at your own risk, but be sure to bring a protective amulet!