Another week gone by; and I've been playing a lot of catch-up at work, but had a fun weekend. Not much to say or talk about.
I mean, I guess if there's anything to really mention, it's that for like the first time in almost two weeks, I got to sleep in my own bed. Between Covid and having to wear a mask for several more days afterwards, I didn't want to expose my wife to it. So, when I finally got the privilege to sleep in my own bed again, it felt quite nice. And then the next day, I was pulled away, because of a weekend stay with some of my family. But our vacation was fun, so no complaints... even if the room I was staying in was questionably haunted.
With the geographic region of our stay, we had some options in the way of drives. One place we drove to gave us this really cool view of an overlook over a a rather large mine. We then took another road that led us out a good hour or so, and brought us almost to a ghost town, or set of ghost towns, and we found a really cool short drive to (or more appropriately, through) this short but cool tunnel that used to be a train tunnel.
Looking at the tunnel, and what's more, the road to it, you could hardly imagine a time when that terrain was practical enough to try to lay down railroad ties, let alone imagine a train running through there. But then, if you looked at me, in a similar way, you might have a hard time imagining a time when I was so stupid, I snuck out at night and tied a hammock to my roof and tried to sleep on it at a stupidly slanted angle. Or, perhaps the time when I decided to ride a jeepney out into a particular region of the Philippines, where, had I known there were a group of rebels out there that would have been more than glad to take me hostage and keep me as ransom, I would have much sooner not gone there repeatedly. Or, the time when I decided to, at the age of 17, without telling anyone, go out on a very early morning drive in the middle of the winter over a high mountain pass, and nearly killed myself trying to get through a blizzard.
Time changes a lot of things. The look of that tunnel almost a hundred years ago must've been a good deal different than the old, abandoned, weathered and forsaken look it puts on, today. Some changes happen for the better, and some changes happen for the worse. With the pain I've seen in some people's eyes, it's hard to just flaunt around the statement, "Time heals all wounds". And yet, in a way, I feel like I mostly believe it. That said, some wounds end up taking more time to heal than is seen in one person's lifetime. Sometimes it even takes dynasties. Some, I don't think we'll see healed until a day that has been long looked forward to comes. But if we'll let ourselves be healed, eventually it will come.
I know there are wounds in my own life that it still feels like are sore, even if time has diluted the pain. But I am slowly learning to accept the changes that time has wrought in my life, and that of my family and friends. And I've come to learn that some of those changes, though they look ugly in retrospect, were perhaps changes for the better. Maybe, just like that train tunnel and road, their abandonment, while sad, brought about more good changes than bad ones.
What changes in your life resemble the forsaken train tunnel forgotten by time- looking like a sad, regretful toll taken by time, but maybe changes that brought about a greater good? Until next time, see ya!