Today for Tomorrow
What else can a man do for a woman he loves — other than love her more?
“What else can a man do for a woman he loves — other than love her more?”
My brother told me this before he became one with the ocean. His words, like bullets, left lasting marks on my soul. He also told me about a Miracle Worker who appears on the mountaintop every midnight. Right now, I am climbing that mountain — to trade my Today for Tomorrow.
I started my steep climb to the mountaintop around dusk. Midnight was fast approaching and Tomorrow is a healing heart away. It was a matter of time before my knees gave in. So I took a break to recover. That’s when my thoughts ran amok.
The night before he said goodbye, my brother spoke about the three kinds of people in our world: People who live in Yesterday, in Today, and in Tomorrow.
He liked to call them Nostalgics, Normals, and Dreamers.
Nostalgics: Lost in the past and indifferent to the present
Normals: Stuck in the present and unable to change the future
Dreamers. Free of the past and unaffected by the present
“That’s why everybody wants to be a dreamer, Levi. But not everybody can. It takes a miracle, you see. And for a miracle, you need the Miracle Worker.”
When my brother showed me the secrets of our world, all I did was nod out of ignorance. But with each day I lived, or rather survived, I understood their gravity.
Like him, I was one of the Normals. It didn’t hurt to be one, but then again it didn’t feel good either. The Sun skipped along the skyline, the wind sang different tunes, and the leaves floated around aimlessly. Every day was just another day. Still. Stagnated.
And then one day… Sophie. Skipping heartbeat. Seventh heaven. I didn’t fall in love. I crash-landed.
One night, she asked me to walk with her. I spoke about many things while she listened. Words never came easy to her, you see. I guess she liked to listen or maybe she needed someone to distract her mind from wandering along the shoreline, aching for the horizon.
I should have stopped then. But as I said, I crash-landed. So I powered through the weight of doubt in my mind and loved like a hopeless romantic.
“There’s someone waiting for me, Levi,” She told me that night, the last night that I ever saw her. “Someone beyond the horizon.”
Hearing her say that shook me so deeply. I couldn’t talk. She went on and on about a guy who lived thousands of miles away, but I barely listened.
I realized the pointlessness of it all. So, I turned my back and walked away. I could still hear her speaking in the background. She didn’t even notice that I left.
Did that break me? Of course, it did! Doesn’t that break anyone?
What else can a man do for a woman he loves — other than love her more?
I guess if she doesn’t love him back, he has to move on. Forget the past, fight through the present, and find a future.
That’s when I remembered the story of the Miracle Worker who appears on the mountaintop every midnight. It was time for me to be a Dreamer. So I decided to meet him — to trade my Today for Tomorrow.
I think it almost cost me my life, but somehow I climbed to the mountaintop. It was midnight. The moon was a bright white dot on a starry sky that never spread thin. The wind sang a solemn tune, while the shadows conquered the world around us.
Us. Yes, there were two of us on that mountain top. It was me and the Miracle Worker. The only person in the world who could make me a Dreamer, who could help me escape the ghosts of the past and the stillness of the present.
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