One moment. One decision. That is all that is needed to change the course of eternity. Not just for you, but everyone. You have the power to change the world, even if just subtly. A decision changes one probability that collides with another, and then another, and so on. The weight of your decision will exert its force like a magnet on iron. A decision is a singular event, but its effects ripple through time like a pebble in water.
A crossroad stands before you. It has many choices. Many paths to take. There are unknowns ahead in all directions, clouded in a shroud of fog. The fog breaks for a moment and you see happiness, success, and relief. Then it veils the future yet again. At next break, you see loneliness and despair. What truly lies down the new path at the crossroad?
You have journeyed the current path for years. It is safe, but you tire of its monotony. Life is more than just a series of steps repeated in succession. It can’t just be the same day over and over. Wake, work, sleep. The routine of the recent path eats away at your soul like maggots eat the dead.
Are you dead? You haven’t felt alive in years. So what is the difference? You are hollow inside, devoid of hope and feeling. The numbness has started to pull you down and you are crushed by it. If you could only pull yourself out from under the weight then you could find meaning at the turn of the crossroad.
Life gives us morsels of meaning here and there. Just enough to keep us from walking into the forest and realizing that nothing truly matters. Eventually, those flimsy meanings fade away and nihilism becomes the fate of all. If it is all meaningless then why try to change course. Why take a different path? Meaning will not be found on the current or the new. It can’t be found in the future or the past.
An apparition of meaning appears in the centre of the crossroads. What is it? The whips of thin smoke call you forth. You pull yourself up from the weight of the world and approach the phantom. It raises its translucent arm and points east. It raises its other arm and points west.
You turn and see a crowd of people staring you down. They are those from the current path. The eyes latch onto you. Hooks pierce deep within your soul and begin to tug you back. Your will weakens. Those eyes. That look. They are sirens but they do not sing to draw you in for the kill, they stare. Don’t look into their eyes.
You lean forward putting all of your weight against the tug of the gaze. The burden is heavier than ever. You look east and then west, realizing that this choice is not the real one. The real choice is to decide whether to stay on your current path or leave it. East or west doesn’t matter. Just choose one.
Either path opens up probabilities to new futures. The longer you walk a path the narrower it becomes. Eventually, it closes in on you, trapping you between two walls of cold, dark stone until you eventually realize you cannot advance anymore. You are stuck. You cannot go back and no crossroad lies ahead. You fear this. You know it is what lays ahead if you continue this path.
You must continue to explore. You must take drops from the elixir of life that sits at every crossroad. The elixir always has just enough to fuel you on your next journey, but never enough to give you the answers and power you seek. The crossroads appear when you need a chance to break free, but it is your choice in the end.
The eyes staring down your back don’t matter. They don’t decide for you. You are the only one who can decide which way to go. It was only ever your choice. The ones with hooks deep within you are doing it to protect their own paths. This is yours.
Realizing this, the people staring at you disappear and it is only you and the phantom of the crossroads. You make a decision. East. Once you step forward and face the phantom, you feel relieved. A new realm of possibilities open before you and the weight of the past washes away. You rip the hooks out of your soul and leave them behind as you step on the eastern path and into a new future.
