When it seems as if all is lost, all is closest to being gained. The moment of our greatest defeat is in reality the instant before our greatest victory. And so victory and defeat are close companions, as alike as the joy and the sorrow which they bring. Who can tell the difference between laughter and sobbing?

The road gets narrower the closer come to the elusive ring. As we approach the goal, fear deploys increasingly convincing terrors to get us to turn back, saving its most potent weaponry to use against us when we’re closest to discarding it as a guide, when we can finally see that there was nothing to be afraid of to begin with. For fear’s power is only itself and the sophistry of the illusions it can project.

Fear wants to keep us small, and it can only do that if I quit. Then it stays in control, owning our notions of who we think we are, instead of letting us find out for ourselves what we could be. And so, we’re most vulnerable precisely at the moment before our greatest awareness.

We strive to reach an absolute, yet as relative beings, we never arrive. We can only step outside the walls of our previous comfort zone, the kingdom of yesterday, in a voyage of eternal becoming.

© 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