A walk through Fire!

There is this towering inferno before me. That’s where the road has led me to. This is one of the paths forward. Not the only path, but the only path that calls to me. I can see few other roads leading forward on this journey called life. They are good roads – safe, loving, secure, known roads. One of them is paved in lovely red bricks, another treads lightly with spring blooms springing along the sides, yet another is long and winding, and there is a certain safe home at the end of it. And I sense at least one more that leads to peace and

serenity of connecting with the highest spirit – a road to detachment and possible nirvana.

And yet, my eyes keep drawing to that one frightful road, with roaring fires blocking the view of what lies ahead. No, not my eyes. My soul is drawn to it. All the other roads, they are blurry – my eyes blinded by the intensity, the luminosity of the fire.

What is wrong with me? Certain love, good home, abundance or a path to nirvana – isn’t that what everyone wants? Isn’t that what I had always wanted – safe, secure haven of blissful, stable life? Isn’t that what my heart had always yearned for? Just pick the damn flowers already…!!

I lift a foot towards the path on the right. Its tempting – that warm and cozy cottage at the end of that road. It would be so awesome to put my feel up and get warm by the fireplace. Small controlled fire in the fireplace, not this uninhibited mass of fury before me. Yes! I smile. I turn towards that road, and take another step…. and then, I hesitate. Something inside of me wouldn’t let me finish that stride, that movement towards the known, the tried, the tested… Something inside me rebels with my own sanity and logic. Something inside me that is beyond my mind, even my heart.

I turn again to look at that raging wall of fire. I have no frigging clue what lies beyond. Its doorway to hell, most likely. The fire is surprisingly smoke free. And if I look at the fire for more than a few seconds, I can’t look away. It is mesmerizing. The oranges, the reds streaked with blues – it’s a dance that calls to your soul. I step towards it despite the survival instinct in my brain kicking in and trying its best to control my limbs. But even that couldn’t prevent me from reaching out to touch those flames. Somehow, I am not scared. I touch a licking tongue of the fire with tips of my fingers, ready to pull back instantly. But I don’t pull back… the raging, dancing flames are not hot. They feel just right. Was that another trick from the keepers of the hell to attract the unsuspecting?

I look at the other roads ruefully – already certain which path I would choose. Times have changed. Safe and secure; tried and tested; calm and peaceful – they don’t call to me anymore. It feels like the time to take chances, to choose passion over serenity, risk over safety, annihilation over immortality – if, that is what my soul believes to be the true path. I must walk through the unknown. That’s my destiny. I must walk through this fire.

And if these flames incinerate me in the process – then so be it…

And if all that lies ahead, if I make it through the wall of fire, is lonely, barren land  – then so be it…

There is no choice. This is my path! My soul tells me so.

So help me God! And if you can, please walk this path with me…