The Concealed Path of Fire

God watched me gamble with life and death. He saw, too, that I was the sort of man who life itself keeps mocking — relentlessly, without mercy.

He simply watched. Even on my worst days... He watched in silence.

Meanwhile, I kept crying out... Why me? Was there no one else in the world? Why, of all people, me?

Then one day He smiled and spoke: Why not you? I blindfolded your eyes and asked you to walk across fire. I wanted to know the measure of your patience, your steadiness. Your feet would burn, perhaps your heart would be torn asunder by the pain. And yet through it all, you would come to understand: this is what life is. Your heart is tender as a flower, and for this very reason, you are wounded again and again as you walk your path. But know this much — you are not only this. You are infinite. You did not come into this world to stop at the first obstacle. I wish that when you are gone, your consciousness might live on within everyone. Let them remember you and say: Even when darkness comes, we must not stop. For those who know how to seek, light will always come!

I thought then: No, God is not so cruel to me after all. This is simply what life is! If you want to live, you must accept these things and go on living. Rather than indulge in needless worry, you must remind yourself again and again: one day light will come, one day joy will return. Nothing that happens in this world is meaningless. In the ocean of life's mystery, even in the depths of unbearable suffering, you must laugh and dive deep to see... what awaits ahead!

Life is not what it was supposed to be. Life is, in the end, exactly what it has become.