Imagine yourself setting foot on a journey. This journey traverses uncharted terrain, much like pictured. You set out alone without preparation, without supplies, without insight of what you may encounter. The time is evening. The forest is dark. Thickened mist rolls over each mountain and slides slowly into the valleys just to crawl heavily up the opposing hillside. Cold, moist air is parted only by the quickened breath of the unknown. The sounds of the forest, some distant, some eerily close, echo off majestic stands of trees that reach through a blanket of looming clouds. A storm is heard off in the distance, the last ray of sunlight succeeds in reaching the leaf covered carpet only to quickly fade away.
You walk up on two trails. One to your left, the other it's mirror image. A pending decision. You stop and kneel in the crossroad. You pick up a hand of soil and allow in to filter through your fingers. No answers here. You look down each path searching for the smallest of clues.
Faintly you see what appears to be a dim light on one of the paths. One second it becomes clearer, other times it disappears behind the cover of the forest. It appears again and looms closer...and brighter. You are able to make out an embodied figure lifting high what appears to be a lantern. The figure moves closer. The darkened path becomes more like day.
A friendly, familiar voice calls you by name. You are found. Your heavy breath becomes light again, as if in the sun. The correct path becomes clear.....you are saved!

Let us all be like Beacons on a Hillside so that....may not even one, travel alone.

Excerpt from "The Journey Learned" copyright 2008