The Mountains Within

One day, Zenith decided to leave the world behind. So he went out at sea, directed towards the Isles At The End Of The World.

For months he sailed. And for months he saw nothing but endless expanses of golden water. After some time, Zenith felt memories flow like rivers from his mind. The ocean was calling him. And the water absorbed all his heavy thoughts, without ever becoming impure. Thus, Zenith slowly found his inner peace.

Then one clear morning, the lookout shouted: “Land!”. A mountain range on the horizon — they had reached the end of the world. So Zenith came up on the deck, cleared his voice, and spoke thus to his disciples:

« Years ago, I left my hometown, and the lake of my hometown, and I went into the mountains.

There, I started climbing for the first time. As I got higher, the air grew thinner and my lungs learnt to breathe. That freedom of high mountains I never found anywhere else.

For years, I climbed — just and me and my solitude, no one followed us. And for years, the mountains were my home, so I kept ascending and thinking many good things.

As I reached each peak, I saw a new dawn. And each new dawn replenished my spirit. Prescient visions came and went with every summit.

With time, I trained my heart to observe his emotions, to let them flow, and to thank them for their coming and going.

Like this, I kept on climbing my high mountains: enjoying the company of my spirit. And for years I did not tire of it.

But, at last, my heart transformed. And ascending one morning to the highest peak, I came face to face with my ancestral enemy: her name was Gravity.

Taken by surprise, I looked inward and took all the good things inside me: my destiny, my will to power, my amor fati, my eternal return… but gravity did not move.

So I turned to my heart and gathered what I believe to be Courage: the leap of faith over the abyss; the lightness to jump beyond oneself and say: “Was this life? Well, again!”

I looked at gravity and said: “Get out of my way, gravity. Either me or you!”

She stood silent. Turned her dark hood, and showed me the black balls of her eyes…

“Either you or me!” I repeated “There is no space for us in this world. In fact, the entire cosmos is too small for both our hearts.

Our destinies are opposite comets… Stop right there! For now we collide.

You have come to disturb my meditations… but it is unwise to play with dynamite. Here, gravity, your destiny meets mine.”

And once again my heart transformed. I closed my eyes, and felt the fresh air of the heights…

—

—

After a while, my eyes opened to the stark horizon, and I realised that I was on the peak. And all my gravity was gone. A sensation of lightness overtook my entire body:

What is happening to me? I thought. Before this moment, my life was a battle, a duel against the sun. I was dancing and fighting, and rationality was all I loved. I cultivated so many fruits: my garden was full of them, but my house was empty. So I picked every single fig, and I kept all their sweetness to me.

But now my Courage, my Entropy, has returned from distant a galaxy…

I did not call her, but she appeared in front of me. I did not decide to return to humanity, but humanity sparked itself back inside me. My entropy came back, and she destroyed my Gravity.

All this time, I thought, it wasn’t I who had to reach the summit, but it was the summit that had to come to me. Yes, my fruits were ripe, but I had to become ripe for my fruits. Now the wind blows and my fruits fall. I needed hands outstretched to receive them. »

So Zenith turned quiet, and he looked far away, towards the mountain range on the horizon.

And he had never seen a more beautiful sunrise, and he had never breathed a more pristine air. And the world around him had become perfect.

28 September 2023