One Step at a Time

I am sitting in the back seat of a car on a chilly Friday morning,facing a window and gazing at a man in the reflection who looks back at me with lifeless eyes - a man who as of late, has become a stranger to me. I reflect on the man I've come to be.

Each breath I take materialises into a cloud of mist which leaves its icy mark on the glass, as if the exhaled air was frozen from the coldness of my heart. Each breath I take obscures my reflection.

As the vehicle approaches a red light,  I observe an old man in the distance, walking on the street; a stooped figure making his way towards his final destination - wherever that happened to be. Each step seems a Herculean task, the walk more aptly described as a shuffle, yet he shuffles on unfazed. With each passing second; with each little step, he was that much closer to where he desired to be.

I return my focus to the man in the glass. We look at each other for a moment, both of us observing how jaded the other had become. The man spoke: "maybe we should take it one step at a time." I sighed, my breath obscuring his figure once more.

One step at a time. I wonder.