To new worlds and undiscovered country. I like where it leads and what it promises. Supple seeds planted in new soil. Suns that don’t blister rising over virgin horizons. I enter them brand new with only good intentions. Shed of my fear-based self doubts like a molted bird, with yet unbroken wings. The opportunity of such untilled earth is not lost on me, I feel renewed vigor in the bones I stand on to do nothing but respect the gold I can pan from it. I step gingerly through it, vowing never to scorch or maim it.

This day, I have been granted the ultimate second chance: a terraformed place upon which to plant my flag. It won’t come easy, it won’t be without strife. That is in the very nature of the beast. But it holds no prejudices against what I may make of it, it bears no past injustices with which to poison it. I am not looking for easy, I am looking for level ground, for once, to make something of all the stones that had been cast at me. Humble empires forged of others’ hardened will, atop a foundation that doesn’t slope and quake. That’s all I desire. I will do what’s required of me, if only this tender earth will have me.