Sweat flooded from my forehead. My legs ached from hours of slogging through the knee-deep mucky swamp. My camouflage shirt was torn ragged on both sleeves. I was exhausted. My two foot machete was now dull from endless strikes against ferns and branches and brush. My arms burned from the relentless swinging of the long heavy blade.

I had to keep going. Moving forward. There was no turning back now, only looking back in panicked glances of trepidation. I wanted to get away. I needed to get away. I had to get away. My life depended on it.

I cringed at the sloppy sucking sound of my mud covered boots working their way through tangles of reeds and roots. But I kept my focus. I knew it would end, this nightmarish day, and it would turn into a hellish night if I was not able to find a way out soon. I searched for any break in the foliage.

Then, at last, an opening ahead? Hope! I stepped out of the dense forest onto a path that eventually turned into a roadway. An actual roadway. I stumbled east in the fading dusk towards a grouping of faint lights glowing in the distance. Salvation?

Published by Daniel McGeorge

Much has happened during my long life. Living, loving, laughing, crying, thriving and scraping by. Fighting in a war in a far away land, working an assembly line, driving a truck, living and working in a mortuary, selling Fuller Brush products door to door, hawking carpet over the phone. This all led to an exciting professional career as a speech pathologist and educator. Planes, trains, and automobiles have taken me across the world, from the hills and valleys of Ireland to the peaks of the Himalayas. From the Rockies of Alberta and the lakes of Nova Scotia to the dusty roads of Mexico. I’ve trekked the swamps of Florida, the bayous of Louisiana and the shores of our mighty Great Lakes. London, Shanghai, Bangkok, Mumbai, and Kathmandu have all welcomed me into their experience. Even the remote hill country of Guizhou China opened its arms to me. It’s been a great life so far. And there is so much more to do. Why don’t you come along for the ride through the Stories From My Mind?