🧚♂️ Somewhere out there is a strange world. A very high wall surrounds it. No one ever went behind that wall. No one ever thinks of it. Why would they? They have everything they need right here. They don't feel like missing out on something. They don't feel the urge to explore. They live their lives, look down the corridor as they go about their days and finally they die.
In a remote area of this world is a beautiful garden. It's wild and far from the daily life of busy people, that's why no one ever really takes the time to go there.
🧚♂️ One day a woman comes. She left that busy life. She left her expensive house and shoes. She left her husband who wasn't really nice to her and she even quit her job which depleted her of her energy. Tired and disappointed with her life she wondered off of the reach of other people.
Slowly the busy sounds of the city disappear and the blaming voices in her head become quiet as she sits in the sun, listens to the birds, and relaxes. As she lets go of everything binding her to the world she flew, suddenly a ladder standing against the high wall appears. She walks over to it and looks up. Her head gets dizzy by the height. She puts her fingers around the ladder and holds onto it for a while. She has never seen something like this but she is very curious about where it leads to.
Still a bit uncertain she takes a leap of faith and slowly starts to climb up. Just a few steps.
Out of nowhere, demons appear. They look really terrifying and block her way up. It's obvious they don't want her to get higher. She is frightened and gets off the ladder. She looks up to see if they come after her but the demons are gone. All she sees is a blue sky, so she climbs those steps again and again they appear. She hesitates but they are showing their claws and teeth, trying to catch her.
She hurries down. This happens quite a few times. But each encounter her fear seems to be dissolving bit by bit and curiosity is taking over. She is thinking: "What would they do if I decide to keep going?
To neglect them? Or even treat them as friends?" She looks up to the clear skies and decides she really wants to get there. She takes off her heavy coat so she can move faster, in case the demons would come after her. She braces herself with a bravery and remembers what she already went through in her life. She knew she was strong.
So she climbs higher. And higher. And there they are, trying to scare her off again. Only now, she looks them fiercely straight into their eyes. And as she does so, she discovers that all she is looking at are her own pains. Old rusty experiences passed before her vision. So she sits there for a while and lets those demons come closer. She holds them, talks to them, calms them, caresses them. She puts a lot of effort into it. And as she does they slowly start to disappear and clear the way up. As the last one is gone, she feels lightness and relief. She resumes her climbing. It's a long ladder, but she is determined to get up there.
She doesn't know exactly why, but she feels it's the right decision. When she reaches the top, suddenly she knows why whole her being was drawn to coming here. Why she couldn't let the demons keep her from it even though she was frightened at first. This view is breathtaking. She can see as far as the eyes allow it. Until now she lived her life inside the walls for so long, she couldn't imagine there was a world behind it. A world made up of mesmerizing beauty and unearthly peace.
As she was standing there, basking in euphoria, she remembered where she came from.
Suddenly all the emotions she knew and lived down there were replaced with feelings of ease, divine connection, deep inner-standing. As if up here all veils were lifted and clear vision enabled her to see the illusions of what was playing out underneath her feet. Nothing mattered anymore. The things she held dear nor the things that made her cry or scream and shout. It all dissolved in the endless blue of the sky she is surrounded by.
Her face is smiling, her heart is singing and she gets off of the ladder on the top of the wall and dances. Her life becomes the song.
🧚♂️ Down there another woman comes by and stops at the bottom of a ladder.
She looks up and sees the other one on the top. Their eyes meet. The dancing woman sees anger and pain in the eyes of the woman below. For just a brief moment she sees a reflection of her self from the time she lived down there. It seems so long ago. She smiles at the woman down there and says:
"Come on up here, it's really beautiful."
But the woman below refuses. Her face gets even angrier. The woman up on the wall wants to encourage her, she truly wishes for her to come and enjoy the view and the peaceful feeling.
She continues: "There are gigantic trees full of fruits out there. The flowers smell like honey and cover the meadows with the brightest colors. There is a golden waterfall coming straight from the heaven and crystal clear waters in the rivers and lakes with golden fish flying over the surface. The sun never goes down here and the music the birds make is heavenly!"
As she is describing what she experiences the woman underneath gets accompanied by other people. They surround her and she climbs the ladder a few steps. All eyes are on her as she reaches the steps where the demons appear.
She stops climbing and starts to tell a story to her listeners: "You see, I am here now, climbing this ladder because I am brave. I am not afraid of these demons. In fact, I enjoy to sit with them."
Everyone is in awe of her bravery. They all start to clap their hands as she is overlooking them.
Then the woman on the wall says to her:
"So keep going, there is so much more to be seen here." People down there look up but they can't really hear her words clearly.
The woman on the ladder gets angry, neglects her words and starts to tell another story to her listeners: "There is a person up there. This person is unworthy of being heard as she has no right to speak. She is not standing down here, she isn't climbing this ladder and she isn't siting with the demons. She is talking nonsense because she is not as brave as I am. In fact, she must've just somehow faked her way up because I don't see her demons around her. She is a cheater. Fake. Imposter. She is making stuff up. About some kind of another world of bright colors and peace out there. She must be blind because she clearly doesn't see how dark and dense it is all around.
She is neglecting the demons and instead of feeding them, I saw her dancing up there. How does she dare to even talk to me?" And all the people down there are nodding and clapping her.
"You are so wise! " someone shouts from the crowd.
The woman on the ladder is satisfied, surrounded by her demons. The demons are satisfied because she didn't leave. People down there are satisfied too and some climb the ladder a few steps up, just because they long to be with her. On her level. And she mercifully allows them to follow.
🧚♂️ The woman up on the wall turns her face away,a little bit sad, because she really wanted to share this ecstatic experience with others and couldn't inner-stand why someone would twist her words, just to fit their story. Then her eyes return to the view behind the wall and she smiles again. All the feelings about previous encounter disappear as the sun rays touch her face.
She starts to dance again forgetting all about the angry people down there. And as she does so, her eyes meet other eyes looking at her from close by. People start to appear around her, all of them dancing their own dance to their life’s music on the wall. As if they were shrouded in a mist before.
She thought she was here all alone but now she sees so many smiling faces. Her heart bursts open and love rushes as a wild river to everyone around her. So much love that it fills her up completely.
For the first time, she feels to the bone marrow what life is really about.
Love.
How blessed she is.
~Nika 🧚♂️
