A Pilgrimage to Me

Today I made a pilgrimage
to myself.
An earlier self.
A young feckless young
fool who somehow, out of
the jumbled mess of youth,
made a decision that would
in–a–blink change
the course of my life
forever.
All of us can squint
into the dense fog of
our past
and recall a time
that time
we stood up
stepped forward
or stormed out.
That searing moment
of incandescent lucidity
leading to irrecoverable
action
etched brightly,
permanently
into our lifeline, like
a white hot ring of fire
encircled by dozens of
concentric loops
hugging the soft center
the pulpy pith
of our family tree —
that time
where we finally began
a different conversation.
If we hadn’t done it
if we hadn’t jolted,
gasping awake
from our stumbling
slumber and did it —
that thing
our lives would
be immeasurably
impoverished.
Of course we didn’t
know it then,
but we sure as hell
can feel it now.
Which leads naturally
to the question:
What action
can we take today
to give our future lives a gift
so precious
that we can't help but
return to ourselves
again and again
in pilgrimage
to say
thank you
thank you
thank you