The sun shone that day. It ought not have. I walked with angels as the earth woke around me and I knew peace; a shadow, disembodied as it were, should have darkened my gaze, none appeared. No siren from God to one of his own, only a summons delivered with the grace of Revelations, thunder without the requisite fanfare. My heart warmed when it should have stopped and I would have held that moment had I known, but instead I drew breath to let the world in and threads of gold blew between the young leaves. The sky was cast in sapphires, misnamed without relation to flame; it would have been more appropriate. The truth in my veins would have run as snow melt had I known, in truth, not truth at all. Thunder preceded cause, ill fated, and I should have flinched in unknown terror like some soldier might when charging down a once familiar hill and one who is brave yet untried shall find a disquieting serenity amidst the gore that bathes the ground and, in a moment, his face. That young veteran loses himself that day and shall seek that stillness for the days that remain to him. A futile venture. It is only to be found in the recesses of the mind; that place reserved for reflection and shame, it is in that calm he holds himself in question and a voice, not unlike his own, whispers a choice that was always there and with it a euphoric ecstasy rises like bile. It is in every man to let go of the lockstep of life, but to open your eyes in the following moments is to face a world unlike that in which you closed them. That new world is the cost of the decision and it shall flood in as the gates lift and the sky shall be cast in sapphires.