One night

One night I had a dream
I saw myself walking along a desert
and seeing there was nothing but
a few parched weeds and trees
seemingly dead I looked ahead
to see distant mountains seeming so far.
I hoped to find an oasis of life and love
where life giving water will feed my broken heart.
Yet all I saw was sand rocks a dried up weeds.
A few hundred yards I saw a dark figure
what appeared to be a man sitting on
the ground hunched over staring into the
horizon and sometimes on the ground.
He was dressed in typical garb of a bedouin
and rather old.
As I made my way towards him He just continued to
stare into the horizon sometimes coughing and sputtering
but always just looking as if pondering over things.
As I came near he spoke to me saying " Come Come
sit with me for a spell I have waited a very long for your
audience.
I said to him "Sir I have no clue who you are nor have no clue
how I ended up here"
The old man replied "Silly man of course you know why you are here ah! but before you get all frustrated and full of doubt
please do me a favor. "He reached into a pocket and pulled out
a pouch and handed it to me. " Here take this pouch and fill it with sand and pour it into your hands and then let it spill and blow away and repeat the process over and over until I say enough and then I shall tell you all you want to know"
I said, "That is a rather unusal request So what's the point of all this?"
The old man said, "When you have done this enough to my liking I shall tell you"
Nevertheless, I did what he asked and started filling up the pouch with sand and poured it out allowing the breeze to blow it away.
The old man eventually closed his eyes and went to sleep.
As I continued to pour sand into the pouch and empty it out of my hand and studying the way it drifted away images of people I knew casually as I wondered why such thoughts of people and especially women I have known or who I wished to have known came to mind.
As I continued to play with the sand I realized the sand seemed to be the thoughts and dreams of my life passing me by. I considered so much time was wasted on trivial
things that did not matter and the more important things in life was just drifting by.
Important things like telling those I cared about who have enrriched my life how important they really were and are to me.
I thought about things I should have or could have done but didn't because of excuses.
Our journey in this life is short and it is the human desire to leave a mark be it great or small. After much contemplation I noticed the old man never seemed to wake up so I decided to nudge him only to find he died in his sleep.
The thought occurred me as I wondered if he got to do all the things he wanted to do before leaving this world. I may never know. Yet what I did learn is while I still had time I knew
I wanted to do things I never tried or did. The first was to seek out those within my capacity to forgive them and ask for their forgiveness.
The second, I want to learn as much as I can about things I am passionate about even if they may seem cooky or crazy to someone else.
The third most important is to make love with as many beautiful women I meet and offer them healing spiritually and emotionally not just fool around with them.
The forth was to travel throughout the world to experience life from the eyes and perception of various cultures around me. Perhaps only to learn no matter deep down inside we are all the same dealing with the human condition.
I may never have the opportunity to do these things but what matters is to take small steps in order to make a giant leap.
Many may ask what steps have I taken so far I could say I just induced others to question their own life to see if they have done everything they wanted to do.
Playing in the sand dreaming of what could be has it's merit but in order to get out there one has to be willing to get out of the sand box of life.