A Journey

How do you measure a journey

Is it in the time captured

Is it in the number of steps

Both carefully measured

And haplessly carefree

Do you count it in the years

Or the months, or the weeks

Is it in the details of the day

Or in the broad strokes of time

Viewed and reviewed

Is it measured

In the seeds that are planted

Or in the crops that are harvested

Is it in the lasting effect

Or the immediate response

How do we know

When the journey is too short

Or tell when it is too long

For the journey is, simply,

From a beginning to an ending

When and where it began

Can be definitely pinpointed

But the end of the journey

Is never really known

As long as someone recalls

As long as the stories are told

As long as the memory holds

As long as the yearbook is read

And the bold signing beheld

The journey continues on

We will take you to a place of rest

We will sadly recall the past

We will recount the good times

We will measure them against the future

And some will think the journey has ended

We will know

It is far too soon to measure this journey

For while one may count the seeds in an apple

We will scarcely know the apples in a seed

And the journey continues

Ron Simpson, Jr.

October 14, 2009

For Allen Terry

February 20, 1988 - October 11, 2009