In this world, founded originally on the idea of fear, which lead to the thought of blame to cover up the fear, a near endless stream of identical thoughts, dreamt by all of us, prevails to cripple our recollection of love, which remains our true nature.  These thoughts, which seem all to be different, are thoughts of judgment – of good versus evil, of me against you, of winner and loser.

And every cold beggar holds our ill feelings for us—of lack, of self-pity, of fear of being trampled and forgotten and unadored forever.  The maelstrom of negativity builds through the eons and buries our love beneath miles of muck.  It becomes hopeless.  Love finally suffocates and dies for lack of remembrance.  No one recognizes it anymore.  We mistake charity for weakness.

Until maybe a woman some below-zero Christmas Eve descends into the labyrinth of streets underneath downtown Chicago and passes out $20 bills to drunks and crackheads with hardly a word.  And in one or two of the people forgotten down in those cracked, concrete bowels of the world, a small shaft of light pierces through, a distant recognition of the gratitude within themselves.  Generosity gives.  Gratitude gets.  Gratitude gives.  Generosity receives.  Until the two become one.

A vague recollection of our own divinity pokes through the garbage smells and grease-stained asphalt on Wacker Drive.  That miracle is the beginning of the undoing of the world.

© 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