From time to time I find myself
On a long and dark familiar track
I’m here more often than I’d like
Though I once said “I won’t go back.”

Each time I walk the path, I learn
A slightly quicker way to go. 
And I am slightly more prepared, 
It’s how life works; the more you know. 

Last year I met a troubled man, 
At the bottom of a hill. 
“I know this way” I said to him
“Follow, if you will.”

I could still remember my first time
How it felt to be alone and lost
How I thought I might not make it out
My life almost became the cost

I tried to tell him all of this,
But he cut me off and said
“You don’t know where I’m trying to go,
Or, for me, what lies ahead”

“You might have been this way before,
But we are not the same,
You don’t know what I’m carrying;
The guilt, the pain, the shame.”

I looked into his worried face
He barely met my eyes that day 
But when he did he shook his head
“No.” He said “I’ll find my way.”

Deflated I walked on alone
Forward, as was the plan
But all the while I thought of him 
And the journey of this troubled man

As I ascended, safe and well,
To a place that I was native,
I wondered would he be with me now, 
Had I been more persuasive. 

And so back down the hill I went
This time I’d come prepared
And sure enough, I met him there
Disheartened, lost and scared. 

“It’s me again.” I said through fog
And I saw the realisation
For a moment he could clearly see
So I made my declaration.

“You’re right maybe I’m not like you
But I know a man who is.
As luck would have it, he went this way.
And I have a map of his.”

As I held it out for him to take
His smile began to dim. 
He didn’t know of the thousand maps
I’d chosen this one, just for him. 

I’d studied every one I had
To find this man’s salvation
I didn’t know where he was headed, 
But I could get him to the station. 

My joy at first, as he took the map
And put it in his backpack
But then despair as without looking
He took a step the wrong way on the track. 

This time I couldn’t leave him
I’d found myself invested
I walked with him and when we got lost
“Check that map” I suggested

And every day we climbed, he drew. 
And every day I waited, 
Because although we went awry at times
He seemed so motivated. 

He was strong and he was patient
And he bravely bore his pain
Some days we came on leaps and bounds
Some journeys were in vain

I could not lead, but I was content
To go out on a limb
And trust that we would get there soon
And so I walked beside him. 

I watched as he deliberated, 
Tortured at each turn. 
And then I went the way he chose, 
Each step he took he learned. 

The second time we neared the top
He chose the easy way
And proudly as he stood up there
He turned to me to say

“Give this to others who are lost here
It took me quite a while.”
He handed me the map he drew
And I added it to the pile. 

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