What Happened After That Day?

In all beliefs, all understandings, and all forms, every person seeks a purpose related to their arrival in life—significant in the eyes of society yet trivial in their own eyes. Moreover, this purpose may be found through active pursuit, or it may be attained without taking a single step. Some are devoted to causes deemed valuable by society, while others feel such causes hold little importance within their inner world. Yet the purpose we speak of is sometimes not found through searching; at other times, it finds a person without any intention or even a single step taken.

The equation of lives reduced to chains of cause and effect is often woven around this purpose. One comes into the world to clarify the waters; another, to exhaust your patience. Some try to convince you of love—or its memory—while others intrude into your life to shatter your order. Interestingly, these opposing functions can sometimes reside within the same individual. Perhaps one exists in this world solely to give you hope. Or perhaps you have been destined to serve as a stepping stone for someone else’s star to shine.

There are moments when a person is tested even against their own happiness. While living for another’s joy, one may be forced to disregard their own pleasures. What has been described thus far is a common, ordinary texture of life familiar to many. You think, “So this is why I entered my life,” and continue on your path. But who can know whether this is truly what happened?

In life, everything can be renamed: karma, fate, destiny, wisdom. Experiences you attempt to explain through different concepts—such as reaping what you sow or discovering what you have done—can drive you toward rebellion or resignation. Yet the true mystery begins here: At a certain moment, life’s own internal mathematics collides with the equations constructed by other people, and it becomes impossible to discern what belongs within which parentheses.

If a person has touched your heart but has no place in the equation of your life, then ending it may seem like a solution. Yet this so-called solution can also drag you into a far more complex, irreversible vortex. At times, you feel lost within this entire pattern. Sometimes you find yourself bruised; at other times, immersed in an overpolished happiness that has stepped beyond reality. And without realizing it, even that happiness may become a test, and later, a performance.

Here lies the most essential truth: The moment you believe you have understood the purpose of your arrival in life, that purpose shatters, twists, or takes on a form entirely unforeseen—like an illusion. Everything you see, experience, and believe can build you up and then destroy you. This small secret also reveals that changes in the stones along your path do not alter the path itself.

Remember what the first truth you perceived was, and how quickly it ceased to be true.

What happened after that day?

^{Light, shadow, self. (Photo: Ayşe Aslıhan Yoran)}