Despite the Hardship

Should I be discouraged or should I go back? This journey is too much for me and the hill ahead is far to steep; I have no more water and my strength is failing, my feet are getting weary and my breath is getting heavier. Is the price worth my life is the goal ahead worth my dying? How much can I take how long will I endure, there is no mercy in the skies above as by day the sun scorches me and by night the cold torments me. I am alone, alone in a dry desert of crippled thorns  and I have snakes for companions. There is no sweet melody to itch my ears but the calculated voice of savaging vultures. Often I run and hide for my life and all for this goal I desire to have;  I often ponder, is it all worth it? Surely it will be better for me and my soul to go back,  yea to go back to the family I left, the friends whom I loved and marry the girl who I love in every way. Why should I endure such hardship and sing bitter tunes all the way. But this is the pilgrim road, the only marked way that guarantees life at the end of it all. So I must walk and look to him who is my strength and my shepherd, guide me in thy path and let me not depart despise the hardship.

K.Oni