It’s no wonder some of us drink and drug and eat and screw and spend do everything else we can to squelch the pain.  For we come from Paradise, from an eternal womb of illimitable light and love.  All our needs cared for.  Dropped then into a world of limitation and suffering where all things seem to decay, and in their degradation, to inevitably expire.  Why would one born from eternity want to live in this world of desire, which is just the measure of limitation, the difference between the limitless and the flawed?  Who wouldn’t want to escape?

The urge to kill the pain becomes something in which we drown.  And yet, what remains hidden is that desire creates the world, and so want itself is the source of pain.  To see a world is a symptom that I entertain desire.  For all that I see in the world, I see as outside myself.  And all that appears to be outside myself, appears as what I lack.  When I lack, I suffer.  And what I lack, I desire.  Desire and pain go together like my right hand goes with my left. It’s in the dream of desire that all my suffering is born.

© 2022 by Michael C. Just

Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.

You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23

Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002

Four of his short stories have recently been published online:

Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)

The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW

I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October

Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within