Taking a step forward

Only to sink back into the ground

The mud sloshes up around her feet

Into the same haze of dragging emotion, she is sucked back down.

Take this step forward, to move on from past mistakes

The roots are reaching up, grabbing at her ankles

The leaves of the trees tell her it is an impossible feat

The next step forward, a little more determined

The wind whips around her in laughing pessimism,

As the grasses sway and whisper with discouraging jests

How do they see this as humor?

Dragging down another, another that has simply fallen like so many others.

But not this one, she cannot fall

For if she falls, there fall with her the hopes, the dreams, and the respect

Of those whom have built her up on this pedestal of unrealistic sainthood.

Yet when she cries out, when she takes that step to walk herself out of the darkness,

The darkness that is keeping her from the shining Sun,

The shadows that had seemed so sunny in times before,

These are the shadows that are now showing the true darkness of their fibers.

But she will not give up now.

Take another step, she must move forward

A drive urgently presses her through the start of the storm she knows is coming.

The uphill struggle will not dampen her resolution now.

She must keep her eyes toward the sky, her heart uplifted; this will make her lighter

To carry her across the top of the muck that so easily pulls her back in,

To guide her through the rustling of the leaves and the murmuring of the grasses,

She sees the next step

Almost looming with ominous anxiety

As she approaches, she resolutely reminds herself of the happiness,

The happiness she will bring out of the calm of this storm.

As she takes that next step, she cannot resist the smile

Even as the rain begins to pelt her face and the trees creak with movement in the howling wind.

For she knows that this is only the beginning

The beginning of the drastically beautiful changes that make us appreciate the darkest of miles.

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