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la via scura

There are two paths ahead. (Only two?)

Do you take the path of never knowing?

No.

You step onto the wide, green, sweet smelling path that is lined with flowers and water.

Nourishing, beautiful, wide enough to spread your arms. It ambles away into the distance becoming steadily darker, less certain, leading you slowly towards a jagged cliff face and nowhere to turn back. You know this, but still you move forward, for you can see an exit just up ahead, open and safe and clear.

Past lessons tell you that it will not be so clear by the time you arrive. It will be overgrown, lined with brambles and thorns, branches that scratch at your eyes and heart and whip your legs until they are almost too weak to carry you forward. A hard path to walk. A high price to pay.

But you'll walk it with such strength and love and light in your heart, such jubilation at your bravery and memories so feather-light that you are sure they will lift you through the thorns and sail you into the clouds long enough to heal.

A high price to pay, but the reward awaits you at your death bed; the view from the clouds, looking down on a life that you weren't afraid to live.

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