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Wednesday 31 July 2019

Mid-Week Flash Challenge - Week 118

This week's picture prompt is by Adam Gaia - although I can't find it on his website or Instagram page, but it has been credited to him in several other locations. He has a few interesting pieces. 

This one was a no-brainer for me, and autobiographical. 

The General Guidelines can be found here.

How to create a clickable link in Blogger comments can be found on lasts week's post here.

There is also a Facebook group for Mid-Week Flash, if you fancy getting the prompt there.





The True Path

It took me a long time to find the path. I’d known it was there – I mean it’s there for all of us, isn’t it? But mine was obscured by the mess of an abusive childhood, and negative toxicity.

I was led onto other paths, paths that weren’t mine, that belonged to others. I travelled down them full of hope, believing I would find my destiny, that place where I could be ultimately fulfilled, but every time it wasn’t there. It was a dead end, only continuing for those it was intended for – which was never me.

It became harder to keep searching. I became fearful I was wasting my time. Never sure of the direction, waiting for the next cul-de-sac that would turn me back to where I came from, to begin again. Each time that little bit wiser, but that little bit weaker.

You see, I didn’t know how to ascertain the right path or the side road that led me to it. I thought the answers lay outside of myself, in someone else. That’s what I’d been taught, you see: I didn’t matter, only they did and as long as I was with them I’d be alright. But that wasn’t true.

And only once crashing and burning hard on one of the wrong paths and left stuck and exhausted, did I finally start to realise what I was seeking lay within. It was then that I started to look inside, and ... well ... listen: to me, to my heart, to my feelings.

From inside the quiet voice grew louder, giving me directions. Slowly taking me off that grey, empty path and bringing me out into the open, into the light.

It lit up a path that had been there all along waiting to be found. A path that led me to the truth I’d been searching for and the fulfilment I needed. It was like discovering a whole new world, one within.


11 comments:

  1. Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned, by Terry Brewer @stories2121 353 words

    I stare at the Sun. It begins burning my eyes but that cannot be helped. I stare at the Sun. Studying each of the flares that erupt from its core. The fusion-created energy that gives me life.

    I must turn. I must follow a path for which I have no map. Away from the Sun. Away from the fusion-created energy that gives me life. Forgive me Father for I have sinned. I must turn. I must not stop until it is dark. Until the Sun is long gone. Not a blip in a black sky.

    I turn away. I will myself not to look back. It will only delay my fate. The moment when I am cast from the fusion-created energy that gives me life. The shadows are at first long. I feel burning against my naked neck. There will be water along the way, I am told, and food when I must rest.

    The shadows lighten as the distance increases. I drink. It has been hours since I turned. I cannot, I will not turn back. Exhaustion grinds me to a halt. I find food as I fall to the ground.

    When I awaken I am in a wood. The Sun is behind me but I cannot, will not look at it. Forgive me Father for I have sinned.

    I walk and walk. Drink. Grind myself to exhaustion. Eat. Sleep. And I awake and arise and walk again. After days uncounted I awake in a dessert. Dunes as far as my burnt eyes can see. The Sun burning behind me. I cannot, I will not look at it.

    Seven days. Seven weeks. Seven years. I neither know nor care. It does not matter. I may not look on the Sun again. Father forgive me for I have sinned. I had love. I was loved. I did not love back. I sinned. I awake and arise and walk. Drink, collapse, eat, sleep. I am Sisyphus. My stone is my unfaithfulness. My hill the rest of my days. Always days when I cannot, I will not look at the Sun. For I have sinned.

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    1. I'm trying to work out why he is turning away, what his sin is, what is the reason behind this - his story.

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    2. "I had love. I was loved. I did not love back. I sinned." He cheated.

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  2. I reached out by nadine Kimmage, twitter handle - @Nadkim

    I'd never travelled my own path, never found my own piece of Eden in this world, yep, it has been complicated and delayed by myself while I followed someone down their road.

    I'd wasted so much time trying to please others only to be knocked down or back because I was never good enough. The only thing that kept me going was my cat Solo and I could only rely on me.
    One autumn quite some years ago, in a dream, I reached out and asked to be free, by Christmas things began falling in to place, I didn't care what people thought or said, this is my freedom, and from there I found my garden of Eden.

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  3. This one leaves me utterly defeated for now. So no story from me this week,

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    Replies
    1. Sorry to hear that. But there's always next week.

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  4. And, I'm down to only 1 behind, week wise. Go me. Saw this picture, and only one concept came to mind. Tube Life

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    Replies
    1. This is brilliant, I love this and such a unique take on the prompt.

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