And so it begins...

I ran for the first time since the summer. I ran until my lungs were full of cold metal shards that the cold air fashioned and gave me to breathe. I ran until I was spitting up my soul.

It was a day of heavy thoughts, thoughts I went to sleep and awoke with, thoughts that occupied my mind while I sat at the window and watched the sun go down, thoughts that made me welcome the night.

I stood on my porch looking this way and that way. I could run there, I thought. There being a path that would offer solitude and safety and whatever else. Or I could choose the path that would lead me to the heart of this abysmal city, to the center of its ugliness.

I chose the latter. I chose it precisely because of its dark promises.

I ran and I came to the edge of a land where a factory once stood and employed thousands but failed and was deserted and its toxins allowed to sink deep. In time I know the earth will correct this grand mistake. Already grass has come to live there again. And there was snow from one end to the other, untouched. It was beauty right there in the lion's den.

I want love to grow here in this town, this town that is sacred to me. I want to befriend it and embrace its many sad hearts. Whatever hope and wisdom I have, I want to share with it.

And so it begins...