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A dream within a dream

Day 95 - Machu Picchu

To look at Machu Picchu is to see a dream. I cannot say for sure it was the dream of those who built it, no-one can. But to me it is a dream of isolation, of insulation, even of inoculation from the cruelties of the wider world. At the absolute least it is my dream of a simple life not crazed by the fever of progress. Not a life where all too often my actions seem to lack purpose, all too often are wracked by doubt and despair. I want to eat, to sleep, to love without the unremitting analysis. A dream of switching off whatever part of my twisted consciousness floated up all those years ago to hover above me like some departing soul in a hospital ward.
I used to disdain stasis feeling those who lacked ambition, had not the desire to drive themselves onwards and upwards were unworthy of my time or my employ. But perhaps they saw, even unconsciously, what I did not. That all we truly need in this life is something to do, something to love and something to hope for. Demand nothing more and perhaps happiness can be yours. I don't think happiness lies on top of a mountain but maybe the conditions for it do. Yet even as I feel these things in my heart my head cannot permit the naive yearning to fully take over. Every person casts a shadow and in that shadow lies the seeds of someone's undoing, theirs or other peoples. What we create we destroy, an ancient and endless cycle. So, while I dream of lying on my back in a meadow bespeckled by a hundred colours of wildflower as a warm breeze caresses the tall grass and I gaze up at a perfect blue sky broken only by a few fluffy clouds of a pristine porcelain, I can feel the heat of the raging fire tearing across the field consuming all in its rampant desire to exist and proliferate.
I dream of a simple house with creaky wooden floors and a vast fireplace scented with woodsmoke. Where the windows open wide in summers that aren't too hot and close tightly in winters not too bitter. Where vegetables grow in the garden and ripe fruit burdens the trees. A place where every person's needs are few but satisfied, where intolerance is not tolerated and all live by the mantra of 'do no harm'. If I ever find such a place I shall have to set it ablaze.
Because it will be a dream.
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Location: Machu Picchu, Peru

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