The Golden Lining

The head hangs down, shoulders droop. The tail’s closer to the thighs than to the grass flowers that sway in the changed wind. It once carried your fragrance afar but now brings to you the reek of peril. You’re on the back foot staring at doom through a pall of gloom. The body’s hurt, the mind’s fazed and the soul’s stirred. Dark clouds loom and the sword hangs low. The road’s long, tortuous and slow.

But you must rise and pick up the gauntlet; look back at the golden sunlit days and see the halo of invincibility that once framed your mighty form, for even though the past is bygone, it is a barometer of the present possibilities.

And the possibilities are immense if you realise who you are – a fighter, winner and inheritor of a great legacy – a legacy of wisdom and courage. The turn of the tide may not be in your grasp but the strength to swim is yours. The woods may be dark, the sky without light; and not a glimmer of a lamp at the end of the long, dark tunnel. But all the light you need is at your very feet; it surrounds you. You exude it like a star, and glow in its wake like a flame. There is no need to muster it and it is never snuffed. You see it when you step back and recognise it.

And if only you do, the golden lining will guide you home.