Door of Dreams.

Looking into the vastness, his breathing was slow and calm. His benign smile aroused from thoughts of victories he had won. Victories over the ghosts of lingering hurt and demons that conducted the plays of pain that once ruled his heart. The sun’s ray filtered through his bedroom window, kissing his face in the embrace of the conclusion of a good day. It had been some time since he had felt so peaceful.

The young man had been going through what most young men go through. The pressure of the need to attain success slowly smelting him into the diamond he is. The pains of past women hardening his heart with love and the appreciation of a peace. Knocking on the door of new journey, he realised that this door had been locked to him for many years. It was not the first time he was coming across the door. This door, with cracks that ran from the hinges and from the doorknob, contained what it was said to him to be: Happiness. For the first time in a decade, he had the key to open the door.

Lost in his thoughts he fell into a deep sleep. The sun intensified warmly through the window. The potent warmth of the sun drifted him into a deep sleep. In his sleep, he was transported to a door with cracks from the hinges and from the doorknob. He stood in front of the door. He tried looking through the cracks but beyond it was nothing but pure blackness. It was not a dark light but a black light. He could see what lay inside the door but failed to make sense of what he was seeing. He knelt to one knee to have a look through the key hole. While steadying himself to have a clear look through the hole, a tiny man with tiny limbs jumped in the key hole. He stood as a star, attempting to block the man from looking through. The sight of the tiny man did not startle him. Instead only made him more curious and eager to open the door.

“Why do you do that?” The tiny man asked, “There is no need for you to look through the key hole like a thief. This door is written Happiness. So inside, Happiness is what you will find.”

The tiny man then leaped out the keyhole, kicking the young man’s eye in doing so. The sting caused the young man to get back to his feet. Blinded by the hot sting in his eye, he raised his palm to his left eye and with his palm, rubbed the ball of his eye. The soothing effect rendered him momentarily motionless and forced him to close his other eye too. He shortly halted rubbing his eye, regaining the power of his sight. Shock, suddenly struck him as the man in the tiny hole had taken the form of a full-grown man. The shock caused him to step back. He hit a rock behind him, causing him to fall flat on his back. The tiny man, now a full-sized man, looked at the young man with a benign smile.

“My name is Argo. Yes, I am not human. I have taken this form so that you can relate. Take my hand and please, take a seat on the same rock that led to your fall!” Argo said with a hearty laugh. The young man, his brown-rich skin lighter in complexion due to the exciting fear that ran in his veins, steadily raised himself from the ground. He moved gingerly to the rock and like a sinking pebble, took a comfortable seat on the rock. Argo looked terribly handsome. Dangerously handsome. Indeed, he cannot be human with such extreme levels of handsomeness decorating his features. While marvelling at Argo’s extraordinary features, Argo himself had taken a rock and positioned it next to the young man. Argo motioned to the young man to face the door. Now, both of them were looking at the door. One knew what was inside, the other only but wondered what was.

“I know what you think. That I should spell it out for you. That perhaps I bear the magic code to open the door so you can see what’s inside. My friend, this is not the case. He locks doors for a reason. He opens others for a reason too. You are so blinded by the mystery of the contents of this door that you failed to realise one key element about it.” Argo said facing the door.

The young man, puzzled looked at Argo. He wanted to ask Argo what he meant with what he just said. But the fear infused with the excitement of the experience, enslaved the functioning of his vocal cords. His mind was racing back and forth wondering what Argo meant that he has been “blinded”. Blinded from what?

“My friend, I know what you want to ask,” said Argo while throwing a pebble away from his feet. He rose from his rock and went around a corner nearby. The young man extended his head wanting to see what Argo was collecting. Argo came back with dry leaves, twigs and moderately large branches. He placed them in the centre of where they were sitting. He carefully placed the dry leaves first. He arranged the twigs carefully and unorthodoxly, placed the branches on top.

“Got a light?” Argo asked.

The young man looked at the arrangement and failed to see how fire will come alive from it.

“Never mind,” said Argo as he took two small rocks and rubbed them against each other. He rubbed them fiercely until a spark landed on one of the dry leaves. To the man’s surprise, fire broken out fiercely. This man called Argo bewildered his mind. So much to learn from him. Who was he? Why is he so handsome? Why does he possess the attributes of the man he himself desired? Argo, where do you come from?

“I know what you thinking but we no longer have much time. This fire will die soon so we only have this moment and this moment only. My friend, look around. Take a careful look.”

The young man stood up. His lungs forgot to exhale the air that circulated within them because of what the young man was seeing. All around him was his dreams. Pleasures and desires, all located in one space. He reached and touched the woman of his dreams and she felt real. He ran to the opposite side of the room and ran his fingers on the metal of his dream car. The car felt real. He spun around. He was looking for Argo with the joy and happiness of that of child. He looked where Argo was but instead only saw a note. He walked over and bent over to pick it up. The note, sliver writing on a ruby crushed gold leaf read:

“All around you are your dreams and desires. Happiness however is not in the woman, the clothes or the car. Your dreams and desires are distractions from your true happiness. Understand this and you will realise you not looking from the outside of the door. But instead, you looking from the inside of the door.”

Not knowing what to make of the note, the young man tossed it aside. How could that be? There was the woman of his dreams, ready to be by his side. There was his dream car. The 850 horses lurking within the engine bay ready to be released by the touch of a button. Clothes he dreamt of owning, begging to be worn. How could these, that brought him happiness instantaneously, be distractions from his own happiness?

A loud knock on his apartment door brought the young man back to reality. The dream felt so real that he lay for a moment wondering whether he was still asleep or whether he was now awake. The knock echoed a second time in his apartment and this time, he knew fully well he was back in the real world. Still slaved by slumber, he dragged himself to the door. He slowly reached for the key and slowly unlocked the door. With a loud yawn, opened the door yet there was no one there. Not interested to know who it is, he retreated into his apartment and closed the door. The draft caused by the swinging of the door, lifted a letter from the floor to float to his belly. The letter fell back to the floor and like an old crane; he bent over to grab it.

The letter, written with silver writing on a ruby crushed gold leaf read . . .

#purpose #life #Warrioroflife #emotions #discipline