Contemplating the intricacies of life as I sit, sipping my coffee, in a downtown cafe, waiting. I look back gently on my own life, wondering. Have I done enough? Can I find a happiness which beams like the sun shine?

The journey we travel doesn’t always lead us where we think it will. Sometimes you will pass through fields of green pastures, and crest beautiful summits. Sometimes you pass through valleys of shadows and darkness. I wonder and wait.

I find traveling alone, somewhat sad in ways difficult to express. But on occasion, you meet someone you remember as always smiling. Always. And I cannot help but wonder. I feel lucky to have known them, even for just the short time our paths crossed, as I sit and wait.

I wonder if I can be just a little bit like them. Just maybe, I can keep a piece of the happiness they shared close. The warm ember shared from a friend. And maybe their glow will help light the darkness for me, like fireflies in the summer night.

I sit waiting and wondering. They are on a different journey now, their passage paid.

It’s time now, I must go. Today I go to help bury someone I can call a friend.