On a bright, humid summer morning, she is walking along a trail deep in the park. Tranquil surroundings, smell of fresh air, and the lullaby of running water from the stream – she felt thankful for everything. A few other morning joggers pass over exchanging courteous nods. From moment to moment, her thoughts wander away into the inglorious past. But she quickly recovers to stay in the moment and relish the liveliness. Yet again, next moment comes, she is lost thinking something about a promising future. Thankfully, her third eye is keeping her in a steady pace through the trail.
Until she runs into a three-way intersection.
Regaining total awareness, she slows down heading towards the groomed island at the center of the intersection. The other two trails leading away from the intersection seem alien. She isn’t quite sure if each will lead to the same kind of experience she has just had in the last 20 minutes. One appears too dark for the morning. The other seem to become narrow within a few yards so she couldn’t make anything out of it.
She takes a moment to turn around and appreciate the trail she came in from.
“May be I should just go back the same way, It sure is worth another trip.”
She is reluctant and quickly gives up that notion. She squeezes her eyes to see as far deep as she can into the trail on the left. It sure feels more inviting. But that’s just a feeling though, they both look more or less the same from where she is. She grinds her teeth for wasting too much time on this trivial thing, but she just can’t make up her mind which one to move on. Yet, she is sure she wants to go the trail as good or better than the one she just came in.
She takes a sip from the bottled water. The digital watch reads 7.44 AM. She wants to be home by 8 AM or at least by 8.15.
She can hear someone breathing hard, rushing to cross over from the trail she came in. A black Labrador swirls around her followed by a tall guy who slows down to look right into her eyes.
“Do you need help?”
“I am all right. I am wondering which way to go”
“Well! Take the one on the right, you will be in good company plus you will love the view of the downtown a mile or so down”
She thanks him as he jogs down the trail to the right. He doesn’t look back and she is still double-minded.
“Do I care for the view?”
Just as she swipes the dripping sweat off her chin, an old couple walk into the intersection from the trail on the left. They look happy, chatty and wanting to talk. She wants to ask their opinion of that trail but decides to just wish them a good morning even as the couple pass staring at her. They fade away into the trail behind her.
“I have always followed my intuition, let’s just move on the trail to the left”
“Wait! Why wouldn’t I enjoy the view of downtown? I haven’t been here before…”
“What the heck am I doing here? This is stupid. What’s the big deal? Just go with whatever!!!”
She begins to walk towards the trail on the left.
“Why should today be any different?”
“You know what? Let it be different. For once, I am going to give a break to my intuition and instead take someone’s advise!”
She turns away heading towards the trail on the right. A few yards down, it becomes narrow, rough, and rather smelly too.
“Is this the company he was talking about?”
She can’t find any signs of other joggers. The morning breeze seem to have vanished and the air feels awfully dry.
“Where did all the chirps and lullabies go?”
Finally, she runs past a mom jogging with twin infants in a stroller. She finds it strange that both the babies are crying louder than all other noise around while mom is busy on the phone. Mom was too busy to bother a smile, so she picks up some pace wanting to get home sooner.
A few minutes later her cell phone vibrates with a text message. She checks the phone slowing down a bit but wobbles and steps on a beer can. The left over beer slurps across her shoes and a bit on her left leg.
“Crap!”, she yells.
She wants to clean it up right away, except all she has is one last sip of water. She wants to get home right now.
“How far is this damn thing going to go? I should have stuck to my intuition!”
A few more minutes of jogging between the trees and unexpectedly, the full morning sun from the east catches her attention. And there it is. Leaning over the edge of the trail, She gets a glimpse of the river and past it, the spectacular downtown. Everything seems refreshing all of a sudden. The skyline is shining like a glorious Kohinoor diamond. The ferries and ships line up the waters as the peak hour traffic is buzzing across the riverside parkway.
“This is gorgeous”, she wishes every morning was as spiritual as this one. She takes the last sip of water, throws the bottle out in the garbage bin and looks up.
Her heart misses a beat. A massive airplane is ferociously descending down into the downtown’s tallest skyscraper.
