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We Walk the Trail Together
By Jane Tawel
January 7, 2026
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Each day before Dawn
I walk the trail with you.
But you keep your eyes averted,
pretending you don’t see me.
Sometimes you talk with someone
who is not there;
but I am passing so close to you,
that I could touch you,
while we are walking the trail together.
*
Each morning we are there,
individuals in a group of early risers,
early seekers of breaking dawns;
still, you pretend I do not exist.
I used to find it annoying –
I used to think you meant to slight me,
that I was not worthy of your smile
or your cheery hello, like some of us share
in the brisk and pre-sunned morning air.
Now I wonder –
Am I really invisible to you
like angels often are to me?
Do you come on purpose
in the darkling light so
none can see your guilt?
Or has your mind so imprisoned you
that you can not free yourself
to see that which surrounds you
in this precious present Here and Now?
What is it that has frightened you so?
Who hurt you in a way you can’t forget?
How do you return to your own home
still so alone, so alone,
without weeping on the way?
*
I used to save my smiles for those
who gladly greet me each morning
with the happy knowledge
that we are so very, very privileged
to have another — one more — day;
that Life is very good
when we can — when just because — we all return
to walk the trail together.
But now I smile at you
as big as my small self can smile,
with no expectation that you will smile back
or that you will even raise your eyes
from this hallowed ground
on which you carefully place your next step.
The smile is not only for you,
Oh yes — I smile also for me —
for in The Ground of Being
there is every chance,
an angel you may prove to be.
We are but passing through,
yet someday, all trails
will lead to One Home.
*
© Jane Tawel, 2026
Jane Tawel 