Found and lost

Walking along the paved wide road that I had always been walking on, I had begun to think about where I was really heading to. As I sauntered along absent-mindedly, I came to a small opening in the woods. It beckoned to me.

I dont really know where my destiny lies and I have only a hazy picture of what it looks like. I dont know if it exists at all. It seemed for a while that this narrow path through the woods might lead me there. I asked a few passers-by about it. With a scared look on their faces, they warned me not to go there. For my own safety. No one seemed to be going there. It looked like it had been ages since someone took that path.

I waited at that spot, contemplating, trying to make a decision and failing again and again. I was scared of the dangers that might be lurking there.

And while I was lost in my confusion, the tide of people walking on this road took me along with them. For fear that I'll get left behind to a lonely starvation, I walked on.

As I continue to walk, my pace falling, I keep thinking about that opening. I walk at the edge of the wide paved road... in the hope that I will go into the woods at some point...

Have you ever wondered where you're walking?

Update: I wrote this long time back and dont relate so much with it now. My perception has changed.

Trees and non-violence

Conflict, fighting, murder, war.... it has all been there, part of human culture.... the violence of civilisation...
When we talk about violence among people... there is a duality... A perpetrator and a victim... or an attacker and a counter-attacker...
There is a possibility of a retaliation... the victim can fight back, can assert his/her rights.
If you hurt me, I will make sure you pay for it in some way.

The dodo, an australian bird, was hunted as a pastime. It did not fight back. It did not know revenge... not even as a 'deterrence'. It went extinct.

When people cut trees... trees dont cut people... they just disappear.
When we destroy forests, they dont resist too much... in the face of powerful chainsaws, bulldozers, etc.
They can't.

But what are we destroying? Just the few inconvenient plants on the construction site? Just a few voiceless savages? Just a few thousands of acres?
The full extent of the damage is not within my grasp. Shall we wait and watch?