From an infant to an adult,
love, joy and happiness are all one knows –
all one desires,
and all that draws one closer.
They guide the choices he makes,
The path he walks,
And the life he builds around them.
But as life unfolds,
love and happiness begin to dim,
like a faint light flickering at a distance,
living only in memory and few moments.
When expectations go unmet
and desires remain unfulfilled,
the self-image begins to seem less worthy, begins to fracture
and life takes a different turn.
Daily living becomes
a tangled web of conflicting thoughts,
where problems refuse
to loosen their grip on the mind.
What remains
is the endless game of blame.
Blaming oneself,
another,
or the world.
Across the years,
most of humanity share the same inner struggle,
where their inner demons whisper louder than any reason,
and their dreams are haunted by unrest.
To fill this void of emptiness and unfulfillment,
each embark upon a path – with a common thread,
only the details may differ.
The directed path one takes
is shaped by the identities he wears,
parental influences,
societal tenets, ingrained beliefs or
simply the myriad voices that surround his modern-day environment —
whether social or digital.
These influences are inescapable,
at least for the vast, sleeping majority.
Everyone has their share of problems.
Anyone who claims otherwise,
is either living an unexamined life,
or has manged to suppress them
deep beneath the noise.
The journey one undertakes
to be free of them
is driven by hope and fear.
Hope for change,
and fear of being alone.
Hope and fear make a man act in way which hope and fear does.
And thus, journey of hope and fear begins,
to overcome one’s inner conflicts …
(Continued in Part 2).
