These Tracks Forgot Themselves

For two years, they ran smoothly on a parallel course - railway tracks traveling to a single end-point. Each strong and independent, but each relying on and validating the other. Both deeply inter-dependent until infinity, or till one might cease its journey and make the other redundant. 

Then, one day, the tracks forgot themselves and tried to meet. One veered toward the other and the other bent closer in response, foolishly forgetting that railway tracks don’t join. In a flash: the familiar became strange, the comfortable became uneasy and the strong became weak. In a moment, they lost their joint purpose and laid the ground for a train wreck...

What can be salvaged now? Can the steel recover? Or did it bend beyond its yield point? Will this track break down? Or can it straighten out and find again the measured distance it must keep? Will the pain eventually morph to sadness? Can the sadness pass or be forgotten? Will they find again the peace and harmony they have lost?

“Many people think excitement is happiness… but when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh