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Category: Positivity

Posted
March 2, 2018
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Micro Short, Positivity, Short Story, Words of Wisdom
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Drawers Full of Memories

“There’s an image of an old dresser on my mind.”

The older man walked along the footpath a few metres below a high mountain ridge. The younger man followed. They enjoyed companionable solitude, but the young man couldn’t shake the image and asked the wise man for his opinion.

“You are going through a period of great change in your life my young friend. Are things stored in the dresser that need throwing out?”

“My mind is full of memories.”

“Secrets?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that.”

“Yet your response was curt.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound abrupt. I’m not particularly proud of everything in my memory and some things are best not disturbed.”

“Why?”

“Embarrassing, not experiences I wish to share. Others are painful.”

“Yet you store them in the drawers of your dresser.”

Another great mountain came into view as they rounded a large erratic boulder. The young man stopped and leaned, short of breath. The older man looked at him, a slight smile, an obvious concern on his wind-worn face.

“Thinking about the clutter in your dresser is not going to help with anything except draw you back to past events. Why go there? What purpose might it serve?”

The young man still leaned against the boulder but had caught his breath.

“You may as well put your energy into moving the boulder as revisiting those memories.”

“Even if I could move this boulder, it serves no purpose.”

“Quite true my friend. Just as resurrecting those memories serves none. Let this wind in our faces take away your clutter. Leave the drawers open until it’s gone. Make space for new experiences.”

Having done that, they continued along their route with the younger man in the lead. His higher-self took hold of his imagination, expanding his thoughts. His step light, he seemed to float above the path.

“Now work those imaginations into reality but don’t forget to tidy away the clutter occasionally.”

The young man laughed and followed the thread of a great idea. When the path offered two routes, he knew precisely which to follow. He hadn’t allowed all the clutter to blow away, he knew of an audience who may appreciate and learn from his past.

Posted
February 26, 2018
Category
Micro Short, Mysticism, Positivity, Short Story
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Father’s Footsteps

The young man followed the same trail between two mountains for the greater part of the day. He seemed none closer to the goal on the distant mountain.

“Where are you when I need you my old friend? This is an impossible journey, I would value your opinion right now.”

Halting, he cocked his head to the left and listened. Apart from the gentle shush of the wind blowing through dry grasses, over shale and between antediluvian rocks, there was nothing to hear. The young man resumed the journey trodden by familial generations of men.

“You are tired my young friend, rest on this rock.”

Looking for the voice, the young man miscalculated a step and fell headlong toward the seat. Not a seat but impeccably carved by the ever-transmuting direction of the winds into something that looked comfortable. He brushed himself down, sucking snow and grit from a graze on his palm.

“That hurt! You surprised me. Where were you when I called?”

The timbre of the old man’s voice was wondrous to hear. Opulent and full of expression, overflowing with love.

“I worried when you didn’t answer.”

“Why? You know who I am and that I will never leave.”

The younger man paused, taking deep breaths, slowing thoughts, easing worries.

“This is an arduous path my friend. What brought you here?”

“Oh, generations of forebears have followed this path. It is expected that I do the same.”

“You don’t sound thrilled with this quest young man.”

“Thrilled or not, It’s the path I must follow.”

“Then why call me? Decision made, the path clear. There is nothing I can offer.”

“The goal at the end of this path seems farther away. I’ve been walking constantly and making no headway.”

“Are you certain this path is yours to follow?”

“I know the route by heart. My father taught it as soon as I understood his words.”

“This is his path and his ancestors. If they followed their true paths.”

“If I don’t do this, the business will fail. Years of hard work, lost.”

“So, find a buyer. There is an alternative route to the mountain over there just beneath this ridge to the left. You won’t be walking in your father’s footsteps but close enough to consider his experience.”

The wind changed, the young man stood. With the new wind following, he smiled at his father and felt the exhilaration of the emerging route turn in his stomach.

Posted
February 22, 2018
Category
Beyond The Pyre, Micro Short, Mysticism, Positivity, Short Story
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Is This Love?

“Do you know what love is?”

“Yes, I believe I do.” The young man sounded confident when he answered his old friend. They sat near the summit of a desert mountain.

“Very well; give me your definition of love.”

“It is an intense feeling of affection toward other human beings. True love is about accepting their individuality.”

“But what about you my young friend? What’s in it for you?”

“Loving is payment enough; if any payment is necessary.”

“But if you love somebody, should they not return the love?”

“I love many people in different ways. Some are unaware that I love them. Therefore, they cannot return my love, nor would I expect it.”

“Where do you think this begins?”

“Love is preinstalled. None arrive on this planet without it. It’s said the universe vibrates to the frequency of love.”

“So why do humans fight my friend?”

“Our birth families follow religious practices and ascribe to particular beliefs. Some follow none. We mimic their ways and the world outside. To be better, do better. We become part of a great race and forget the one truth. You have taught me these things my old friend.”

“I tell you only what is. What about those who harm others because of the beliefs they love?”

“You cannot love a belief, only another living creature. But sometimes, people love others because their lives have led them to identify with harmful beliefs.”

“Yes my  young friend, the mind is like a glass of water. Mix in the beliefs of society, agitate and it becomes difficult to see. Leave it to settle and all becomes clear.”

“That’s why this desert solitude is so special. Here I connect with the truth, nothing here reminds me of those things that bring pain and hate to the world.”

“You love this place?”

“Because it reminds me of love.”

Posted
February 19, 2018
Category
Beyond The Pyre, Fiction, Mysticism, Positivity, Short Story
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Walking in The Forest

The young man couldn’t hear the voice of his old friend calling through the trees. It took a lot of calling and listening before they met in a glade near a pool of clear water and sat together on a log at the waters’ edge.

“There are many obstacles on your path my young friend. So many that you are unable to see the wood for the trees.”

The younger man laughed. “That’s a familiar saying.”

“Yes, and it describes your current predicament perfectly.”

“I wasn’t aware that I have any predicaments.”

“If there are belongings in your life stopping you from moving forward; you have predicaments. The trees are symbolic of the things you have allowed to get in the way. Deal with them and cut down the trees.”

“That sounds so simple. How can I throw things away that prey on my mind?”

“Are those things current and of value?”

“There is one thing from the past that returns and haunts me.”

“Does it relate to current events?”

“No, not that I can see. But when it happened, it aroused painful feelings and challenged my beliefs.”

“Did you have any power to change this event or alter the outcome?”

“No, because it related to a decision and action by somebody else. I would not have done the same.”

He looked at his image in the pools mirror and from the corner of his left eye, noticed a small waterfall softly tumbling between age worn rocks. Ripples rolled slowly across, distorting his image.

“Let’s say you had the power to alter that event. How would life be now if you had?”

“My path would have taken a very different route.”

“Imagine you are tumbling in the waterfall over there. If I move a rock your course will alter but you will still end up in the pool. If you manage a handhold, you will tire eventually, and the result will be the same.

I changed the course of the water. There was nothing you could do about it. You ended up in the pool.

So, finally, would it not be appropriate to take what you learned from that event, leave what you don’t need and, cut down the tree?”

The image of the young man cleared between ripples, he looked across at his old friend.

“I don’t like that you are right but, you are. That tree is on the log-pile.”

The friends smiled at one another before going their separate ways.

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