I am Matthew of Place of the Way. I am on a journey. I would find myself, because in so doing I would free myself to love others and have some peace. On the back of the guide’s cape, and also carved in the stone archway, is an emblem consisting of a circle with three birdlike appendages inside, rather like a whirlybird from a tree only having three arms instead of the usual two. Perhaps this means something about the cycling of life, or freedom of wind and the urge to scatter seed, or even something about stability. It feels good to take care of myself. My skin feels alive here. I see a man looking out of the mirror who is still alive. He is tense, he is tired, he is scared. He is a good man, but lost. He has a home and a family but he is not sure where they are. He is afraid of what he is seeing in the mirror because he knows nothing is really hidden. All the weaknesses, defects, and fears he usually convinces himself are so well tucked in are so close to the surface. And he does not want them to fall into the wrong hands, yet something no longer feels right about holding onto them. You can see this in the lines in his face. The mirror face says, I am broke and I am on the road and I am funny and I am wearing a long dress and I am not who I said I was and I am hot and I am tired and I am so confused and I am sure I know who I am but I am so hard pressed to say it and I am full of hope and faith even though sometimes U can’t see it and I am getting older, scared that I might run out of time. I have been one who leapt and who played with jubilance. Long ago I was tousled, blond, windswept. Then I became sodden, heavy, petulant. Best of all, I have been a lover and a strong man. Worst of all, I have been deceitful and cowardly. My story is the story of someone who burns with a desire to feel and know the world around him, and there is something there, something always just outside his understanding, something that he is not sure if he is trying to grasp or to let go. All my life I have sought this powerful feeling, just to bathe in it, to be carried by it, changed by it, informed by it, loved by it. My most foolish wish for the future is not to have to work. My wisest goal is to do work that makes me happy. I will be one who writes stories that give little pieces of life to people, and who loves a woman and who loves his family and who relaxes sometimes and who listens well and who takes good care of his dog and who does what he says he’s going to do and who does good work and who loves. To realize my dreams I must stop defending myself from them, and I must start allowing that I may be the person I am dreaming about. When I get back to the world I come from I am going to carry myself with dignity.