.....2 Run..........At 40 I Am Lost..........

......I am lost.....

......I am a hiker in a conifer forest chilled to the bone and unable to see the stars to find my way....

.....I try running but the branches slap at my face... the pain distracts me from my goal and replaces my determination with desperation.....

.....Unfamiliar sounds startle me and flinching, I again change my course.....

...... A shaft of light pierces the canopy and briefly illuminates my surroundings but they are strange and unknown to me....

...... In a second it is gone and I blink the tears from my eyes only to lose my footing once again....

....There is pain and annoyance in my stumble for again I have to rise in an unfamiliar terrain to again attempt to find my path.....

........Ruefully I realise I am no longer even searching for a certain path - but ANY path....

..... My sprinting falters into a stagger and stumble in which I lurch from tree to tree.... the branches again slapping me and only increasing my distress.......

......Resolutely I continue for I can not stand still...... and yet my fevered course is broken and ever changing with not a compass point for reference nor a star above to guide me.....

........ The forest swallows me triumphantly beating me again in my quest to escape......

......... Even as I scream my defiance to the air around me I wither at the absence of reply.....

.........I am lost..............

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