Exit 3

When life really gets to you, you need an exit.

It is beautiful. I do not know the name of the lake but its serenity surpasses the chaos of my universe. When life is stressful, all I have to do is to strap on my seatbelt and speed on towards the lake. As I approach it, I see people walking dogs on the sidewalks and old people sitting on the porches of their houses smiling and watching their grandchildren playing hide and seek. Amazingly, I calm down automatically and follow the speed limit precisely. The feeling is that of the Prodigal Son returning to the father. I am reverent. The trees are greener, the sky is bluer, the air is cooler, the water is silky, and the golden retriever playing fetch at its master’s command somehow has a glow that makes the joy of watching it all the more peaceful.

And that beautiful little blind girl who sits by the water is not blind anymore. Her face lights up with the sounds of birds singing summer songs. She becomes ecstatic. You could tell that every sound she hears is music to her ears. Every pebble falling through the surface of the water is a drumbeat to her soul. Her heart makes her face red when she hears what couples walking along the lake say to each other for romance’s sake.

I see the two-year-old who has never seen a lake before in his lifetime. His questions about the color of the sky and the fish in the water to his father make his father remember himself. The child’s mother runs over to the car to pull out a swimsuit for the infant’s first swimming lesson.

As I take off my shoes and dip my feet in the water, my stress dissolves in its coolness. Suddenly I cease to exist; I become invisible. No one can touch me. I lay back a little and I am the creator. The wind, the water, the scenery, the sky, they are all me. I can see through the eyes of the beautiful little blind girl.