I Stand Here Today.
Looking Forward.
The Goal I See Is So Very Far Away.
There Appear to be Mountains Far Ahead.
But Today I Sit in the Valley.
It makes those Mountains look so much Larger.
It Feels like the Sun does not Reach Down Here in the Depths.
The Shadows Move and Stretch in Unnatural Ways.
Do I hear the Sound of Wind?
Creeping And Coursing Through this Depression in the Earth.
Or have the Shadows of My Fears Come to Join Me Here?
With the Goal to Drag me and Bury Me Under the Earth.
If a Boulder Breaks from the Ledge...
What will my Fate Be?
Will I be Lucky and Avoid the Crash?
Or will I get Trapped with No One Around?
Echoes of my Voice thrown into the Abyss, Never to be Heard.
Forced to choose between Living and the Limb Pinned Down.
Will that be the End of the Story?
I look behind me from Where I Came.
It is So Far Away.
Was it always really that Small?
When I was there it Felt So Much Larger.
So Much More Significant.
But now, with it being Miles and Miles away...
Was it ever as much as I Believed?
Maybe it was a Mistake to Leave that all Behind...
Perhaps it was Unwise to head off on this Journey...
Could it be a Fool's Errand that I Decided to Go Off Toward this Goal?
What if I just Turned Around and Forgot this Entire Endeavor?
Allow the Shadows' Whispers to Sink In.
Give Up.
Give In.
Allow the Darkness to Decide My Fate.
This is the End.
As Far as I Go.
Perhaps I should Just Lay Down for Now...
Rest My Eyes...
Silence...
Except it is Not Silent Now.
My Soul Aches.
The Shadows' Whispers Begin to Sound Happy.
Far Too Happy.
Eerily Happy.
This is Not Right.
Not how it is Supposed to Be.
I Left for a Reason.
For a Purpose and Mission.
I Knew that the Journey and Path would be Long and Hard.
Perhaps have its Perils along the Way.
Struggles were Destined.
Challenges were a Given.
I Knew, but...
Did I Really?
The Stories of Old make these Moments Feel So Simple.
My Imagination painted them as Glorious.
Where I Strike Down the Monsters and am Hailed as a Hero.
Yet, none of that is here.
Only the Shadows and the Whispers.
The Reality is So Much More Difficult than I Ever Thought.
Were the Stories I heard all Lies?
Or were the Tellers simply Too Afraid to Tell the Truth of how Dark this Path becomes?
Were they Haunted as I am Haunted Now?
Are they Haunted Still?
Perhaps it is Fear...
Or Perhaps a Desire to Protect from the Harsh Realities that Exist Here.
But is it really a Service to Anyone to allow Another to go off Unprepared and Unready?
Or perhaps it is Something Else...
Something Different...
Could it be that they have Discovered something on the Path to their Goal...
It could be that these Same Terrors and Shadows Existed for Them...
Yet when they Arrived at the Goal...
These Fiends were all Banished.
The Darkness Held No Power Anymore.
They were Free.
Free from the Whispers.
From the Fears.
From the Shadows.
Not that those Disappeared...
Rather, they Simply Lost their Power.
The Whispers begin again, Louder and Angrier.
I have Figured It Out.
They are Losing Control.
They are Unhappy, but it Does Not Matter.
They Have Nothing.
They Are Nothing.
I begin to Climb Out of the Valley.
The Goal Begins to Seem Possible.
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