Walls.

Her home was not large and she didn’t have all the opulence of the rich and famous. But there was enough for her and the family. Life was good, and there was laughter around her….. that is, until the bombs came, and destroyed the street they lived on. Men and women fighting in the name of religion, annihilating the sacred and revered places of worship. These people who called themselves Muslims, terrorized other Muslims and non-Muslims. True Muslims do not kill innocent people. Islam is a pure and simple religion which teaches camaraderie and love and humility. She couldn’t accept these savages to be Muslims. They were tearing down her home and she needed to run away from their tyranny.

Her father had said, “This is your world. Your planet. With your education, you can go anywhere in this world and find a good life for yourself and your family.” The family packed their belongings in small bags, and hugging the walls of their simple home, cried their farewells. These walls had seen them laugh and cry and were their confidants to the secrets of their lives.

In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures. We fill our minds with simple facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place. The mind of a thoroughly informed man is indeed a dreadful thing. It’s like a bric-a-brac shop, with dusty ideals and monsters , with everything priced above the proper value. But the spirit is so strong and so willing to take the challenges.

When the dinghy reached the shores of another land, which she thought was a haven, and where she would be able to build another home with similar walls of love and security, she cried. She hugged her family and started trekking the unchartered land. Then she saw it. There was a fence in front of her, and it extended as far as the eye could see. That land didn’t want her or her family or any other family. The walls she had hoped to build around her new home, were mounds of dust in the depths of her heart.

This was not supposed to be. This was her world, her one world, her one planet, without borders and without fences, where people laughed and hugged and loved and welcomed each other into their homes. Kismet, or fate or whatever you call it, had lied to her. There was sorrow in her heart. There was a hole in her heart that stretched as wide as the fence she stared at. She closed her eyes and said, “My world has walls and fences and barricades. These walls are suffocating me and my world. These walls are suffocating me and my world!”