Quotes that inspire: The Bridge

Quote: "To experience a place I need to walk in it as often as I can."
From Poemcrazy by Susan G. Wooldridge

This quote has inspired me to write about a place I like to "experience" from time to time.

There is a bridge that I like to visit. It is not a special, fancy bridge, though it is nicely paved for bicyclists. It's just a bridge connecting one area to another. But there is something about this bridge that pulls me to it. Something about it which makes me feel it is a sacred space.

The first time I was on this bridge, my daughter was with me. Five at the time, we took turns going back and forth, pointing at the cars and seeing how far we could see.

Now I usually visit this bridge alone. It is a place where I can think, where I can meditate. Where I can ponder the thoughts in my head. When I don't have a person to talk to about things, this is where I go to try to work them out for myself. This is also where I go to just be "invisible" from everything. It's like I am on the outside looking in on this world, and that bridge is my window to that world.

As I look beneath me, I watch all of the cars passing by. Where is everybody going? Where have they been? What conversations are they having inside of their closed-off world made of steel?

I look out past the cars, out past the people walking on the sidewalks below, and I see more cityscape beyond. I see more cars coming and going. I see a road stretched out in the distance, beckoning to me to tread its path. I see the trees reaching out to the clouds in the sky.

Bridges act as a connection from one point to another. They are what brings one side together with another side, sealed together in a way that is not too imposing or awkward. They connect the sides we could not otherwise venture to, and may never know were it not for that very bridge.

A bridge is a welcoming invitation to cross over to something new, something that may lead to a new chapter in our life. A new destination. A new phase of our adventure. A new world for us to explore and grow in.

All it takes is the courage to step onto that bridge, and to take every step forward to cross it.