Broken Wings...

I write this from the airport as I wait for my flight.

I had heard once that the waves of time are like the rising tide of the sea. They always push a person backwards… back to the shore… back to the starting point.

Somehow the story of my life seems to be spun around airports. I have always flown to some new destination whenever I started a new chapter of my life. And as I grew up, I traveled alone more and more often.

And here I am once again, with my laptop slung over my shoulder. Making another business trip. Traveling alone once more.

So, this is nothing new and I have merely gone back to my solitary travels. But there is now a difference. A subtle difference if you look at the set of my mouth, and a drastic difference if you look deep into my eyes.

Before… I used to wonder if I’d meet my soul-mate on this flight or the other, and never fly alone again. Before I hoped and dreamed that I’d settle down and build a nest. Put my wings to rest.

And then it happened. I got on what I had thought was a one-way ticket to heaven, with a companion for life. But it turned out that I was forced to take a return flight, all by myself, after a very short-lived and unpleasant trip. With some new baggage and some old.

Now… I see myself traveling on interminably. I wonder if the waves will keep pushing, and if I’ll end up at the same point again and again. Like all these people around me…in expensive business suits… with worry lines around the eyes… sipping coffee alone in a frequent flyer lounge somewhere.