Preface

I was walking down the beach, just smiling at a memory, when an old woman crossed my path.

Her wrinkles told the story of an unbearably heavy life, her eyes thick sheets of steel, a fortress protecting her soul from the light of the world. Try as she may to conceal herself; in her I saw the future. She was me. Twenty one years of a heavy life had hardened me to that day. Sixty years of the same life would bring me back there, facing the other direction in a worn set of skin and those same shielded eyes.

“What are you smiling at”

Cold words fell out of her ancient mouth, unknowingly determined to ruin anyone’s day.

I shrugged my shoulders, because for the first time I found I possessed the lightness to do so.

“Life”

We both stood astounded at the word as it carelessly drifted out of my just burnt lips. Two souls, otherwise cast in the hardest of stone, created so heavy by life that they would sink to the darkest depths of the ocean if thrown to the playful waves of the sea, confronted by life. The unbearable, undeniable, unavoidable lightness of life, filling the void between these two hardened souls, presenting itself to them as a promise.

A flirtatious breeze blew between us, emptying the void and replacing it with a challenge; catch me if you can.

The old woman gave me a smile, not from her face, but from the very back of her eye. A long forgotten memory taking a chip out of her shield. We both departed from the ruts we had made in the sand with the weight of who we were sinking deeper by the pulling of the waves. Our hourglasses flipped, time now precious, which was once needed to be wasted. The depth of our skin played no part in our task; age is simply a number. It gives no secrets to the passage of time. We had our challenge and the promise tucked safe in our pockets; two enlightened souls embarking on the chase for the lightness of life.