Illusion

This happens to everyone, or so they say. You jump into a pool of waterlilies and lotuses, the pretty flowers floating on a silver film full of mysteries. Walking through the dense forest of your life, you spot the pink purple flowers reflecting back the sunlight that you don't see coming in. You wonder if it really is as it seems. You turn around and look back at the deep dark forest you have trodden. 'Salvation!,' you think to yourself. 'How can it be?,' you ask yourself the next minute. A step forward, two steps backward... three forward, four backward... Just then, a waterlily bud blooms as you watch in rapture. 'This can't be real,' you tell yourself. 'Let me go closer and touch it!'

And then you run... you run toward this mystical pond so fast that when you reach it, you are out of breath. Right at the edge, you fall on your knees, still looking at the shiny surface of the fresh flower in awe. It looks like velvet. You yearn to touch it. Still short of breath, but high on the adrenalin rush, you get up and walk closer. You pinch a petal of the flower between your fingers. You close your eyes, and drop your head back in ecstasy. With your eyes still shut tight, you step into the pond... you magically hop from one waterlily leaf to another... shaky, it still holds you up. You tremble inside with fear... it's almost a dual consciousness that you have entered. All too aware that the delicate leaves beneath your feet may crumble at any minute, but at the same time, you have surrendered to this rescue that came your way from nowhere... at the same time, a strange faith in something that you can't name emerges and rushes through your blood. And the faith takes over. You stop hopping, and settle yourself on the top of a rock in the middle of the pond. Surrounded by the heavenly silver and pick and purple...

And then it drops. The rock, steady as it looked, it sinks into the pond and disappears. Underneath, you are soaked in mud. 'Of course!,' you tell yourself. You struggle to get out, and of course you do. But as you walk past the muddy waters, you can't help but look back every now and then... to figure out if you made a mistake, to see if the waterlilies were real, or if the mud was, maybe you took a wrong step... but most of all, you want to know if you will still be allured by the illusion.

And so, you retrace your steps...

And no, the sunshine doesn't allure her anymore... she sees the hollow beneath the promises it shines!