Over the Edge

I was high. High on life and love. Loving and living in a paradise of deep emotions, joy, lust and hotel rooms. And then I fell off a cliff. Not a cliff I saw coming. Not a cliff I chose to leap from. There was no moment when I felt myself consciously push off the edge.

The precipice was hidden in your words. You stood there as if all was well. You kissed me deeply and pressed your body against mine, with never a hint of the danger. The danger of your words. The words that sent me over the edge.

I fell quickly. The winds swirled around me. The air rushed past my face, roaring in my ears...so I could pretend...that I didn't hear the words...that sent me over the edge. There was no pretending. No way back up the cliff without sacrificing my spirit. You stood at the top and turned away as I fell.

The sacrifice of finding my way back to the top would have stayed with me forever. The compromise you insisted upon would have diminished my very being. And I knew it would still not have been enough.

So I opened my arms wide as I fell. I opened my eyes wide, too. Only then did I see…my wings. My descent was magical. Soaring on the currents, I welcomed whatever lay waiting for me at the bottom.

A different paradise beckoned to me with the promise of adventure. Exotic realms stretched as far as I could see and beyond, begging to be explored, experienced, enjoyed. I felt opened and intensely alive. I felt somehow...more. More than I was in that high place you and I shared. More whole.

Thank you for that paradise you took me to.
And thank you...for those words...that sent me over the edge.

I found my wings.
And with these wings, I will set the world on fire…