There are so many stories in this world. Some have great heroes, while some simply happen and disappear with out making much of a wave at all. What is really important and weighty is regaling the lessons learned from such stories. Just when everything was supposed to come to an end. Ancient calendars had predicted the collapse of reality and the wisest among us were counting down the time. We all aged, me along with the rest of you. Leadership would define my new age. Early on changes in life, situations had found me in a place where adjectives like leadership, vision, planning, management, and the future were attached to conversations I was now an active participant in. I felt as if I had tripped and fallen onto an act of nature in progress. I still do not fully comprehend how I got here. God has everything to do with that. The more I stretch the more I realize the size of my new world. Stretching, growing, responsibility, all of these things fall into a single thread one that when tugged on has at its end major implications. I have always had two warring factions at heart. The old man in me and the youthful child. I have enjoyed that child for twenty nine years he has guided my endeavors with a wide eyed view. He has lead me down paths of wonderment and amusement. The youthful energy and curiosity aided Gods plan to bring me to tug on the fore mentioned thread. At the end of that string was a card and it read "grow up" terrible, lovely words. The old man and the child sat down flabbergasted. The air still hung heavy with the command. Sometime passed and without speaking the old man gathered wood and made a fire to keep then warm. Staring across the fire looking into one another eyes they knew that they could not both walk away from this. The imminent death of one of the companions was at hand and for several weeks now I have struggled with the idea that childhood, like most vehicles of exploration, had taken me to its last destination the shore of adulthood and the amazing cliffs and mountains that extend beyond the hazy horizon. Who would remain and what would that mean for the future. The youth was a close companion one that taught me how to love, how to fight and how to learn. The old man had only been allowed to rear his wise head when important decisions were to be made. How could one choose between two companions as faithful as they. As youth grabbed a sharp rock I considered all that could be lost if the wrong decision is made. Childhood can not carry you it can only grab you by the hand and lead you to those places where the light dances in-between the trees, where you would swear if magic existed it would make its summer home. Adulthood stretches its legs and forges a path that is selfless it seeks to make a way to a legacy, to build and find deeper meaning than the surface malaise. Adulthood is not comfortable but it is right. So with the tension mounting I made my decision. I chose the middle path the harder of the two, and the old man reached over and picked up the youth and began to walk with all his strength, wisdom and knowledge cradling the youth. He would not consume him but rather apply him as a craftsman applies skill to a project. No longer would youth lead. Adulthood is upon me and the youthful child I have so loved will not lead me by the finger, he will not make the decisions. The old man will lead he will walk selflessly towards Gods will. The youth will ride in his arms, resting but he will be there and he will be allowed to run wild in fields deemed safe and correct by the old man.