After the exhausting hustle and bustle of the day, you finally throw yourself into your seat and take a deep breath. For a while, you keep on staring at a point, and your past life, which you are about to leave behind, plays like movie scenes in front of your eyes. Eventually you tell yourself, “It’s over,” without realizing that, in actuality, it is just starting.

After a several-hour journey, the plane lands at your new destination and you face your new “homeland.” You assume and hope that, that this place will become your new homeland. The most remarkable thing you notice is the condensation of your breath due to the cold weather. It’s one of the spring months, and everywhere is as green as can be. You have great expectations, and your heart is full of hope. Everything appears "rose pink," like a dream you never want to wake up from. It feels as though everyone around you will vanish as soon as you open your eyes, revealing the "truth." You observe everyone smiling and laughing, even for simple reasons. You dismiss others' descriptions of the people in that country “as cold as its weather.” Many would describe it as a fragment of Heaven.

You finally decide that you have found your new homeland. This decision feels good for a while, silencing the voices whispering for you to wake up. However, the sweet dream doesn’t last long, and gradually you start realizing the "truth." Your inner voice repeatedly whispers that something is going wrong. Even though your satisfaction is gradually declining, you try not to surrender. An indescribable feeling makes you perceive that everything is not as it seems. Under the bright sky, with a sweet breeze and drizzling rain, you see a small pit where a little water has accumulated, reflecting your image on its surface. You begin to question your reflection: “What are you doing here?” “Do you really belong here?” “Don’t you ever feel like you are suffocating in the black hole of loneliness?” “Is it necessary to be liked by people to have them around? Why would they betray and backstab you?” These questions bombard your mind, threatening to drown you in an ocean of interrogations.

Suddenly, you find yourself in a world full of noises, laughter, screams, flashlights, and crowds. Everything revolves around you at high speed. You can’t do anything but stand and stare, wondering about your purpose of existence in that place and the reason behind the circumstances you've experienced so far. You conclude that you haven’t found what you were looking for there. The way people treat each other and their actions make you feel even more detached from that place. The strong desire for belonging and the longing for a homeland lead you to seek another place where your heart feels at home. This yearning intensifies your longing for the land where you were born, spent your childhood, smelled the roses, and touched the soft snow. The loss of your loved ones, one after another, adds to your sorrow. Although you are aware that they are no longer with you in this world, accepting their absence remains difficult. You recall the truth of “death” when observing the snowman in your garden, melting in front of your eyes each day. Eventually, only the carrot nose and olive seed eyes are left. Tears fill your eyes with a childish sadness for reasons you can’t quite explain. Just a few days ago, the snowman was there, smiling at you from outside your window, but now it's gone.

Life and death, two words that complete each other, are truths that you witness and cannot avoid. You often hear the phrases, life before and after death. Yet, you still desire to keep the candlelight of hope burning within you and avoid falling into despair. You need a branch to hold onto in the stream you're drifting through.

You recall someone asking you who has the most hope: the rich or the poor, the strong or the weak? Are wealth and power the only sources of hope? Are all the others in a pitiable condition? Are these things necessary to have hope in life? When everyone comes onto the stage, plays their role, and then leaves, what is the reason for taking ownership of certain places in the world and pretending you will never die? Is there a need to be so greedy and selfish?

When everything around you has a purpose of existence and life, even a tiny earthworm adding nutrients to the soil and the delicate stapes bone in the human ear sending sound vibrations, is it reasonable to live without understanding your own life's purpose? Is being social the only difference between you and an animal? Is life meant only for eating, drinking, and enjoyment? When plants and animals aren’t given the ability to think and seek answers, why do human beings have that potential?

Still searching for a place to belong and seeking satisfying answers to your questions, you can't even find what you long for in your homeland. Nothing is the same as it once was. The laughter of children is no longer heard, the roses have faded, and everything has turned dark as if touched by a witch's magic wand. You can no longer sense the sweet breeze carrying the scent of your homeland. The craving for the "eternal" one is never satisfied with the mortal. Pain is what remains with you when happiness disappears. The awareness that even worldly happiness is transitory fades the smile on your face. You accept and surrender to the truth that wherever you go in this world, you will never truly feel a sense of belonging. And that's when the last candlelight within you extinguishes...

“No!” your still-alive inner voice, which had been whispering quietly until then, yells. “You can’t give up this easily! You can’t surrender to self-despair! Wake up and come back to your senses! Be like a honeybee that sits on every flower but never hurts any of them, even if they might hurt you. Enter every garden and ignore the trash in the corner. Because you can't perceive the meaning hidden behind existence, you look for what you desire in the wrong places—those that are mortal and fading. You consider them faultless at first glance, but realizing their defects gives you more pain. Redirect your aims toward the right one and head down the right path. Leave the wrong, find the truth. Stop looking for satisfaction among mortal things because even if you were given the whole world, you wouldn't be satisfied. Choose the Enduring One. Love for the sake of the Eternal One. With everything you love, you open different windows to the same Beauty. Even if people and places seem to make you suffer, you won’t get hurt because you will say, “I loved you for the sake of the Eternal One.” Long for the day you will reach the endless destination you can truly call your homeland, “where no one will ever be discriminated against...” “Wake up from your unawareness,” exclaims the inner voice, bringing you back to your senses. “But how?” you ask. “How do I achieve this, and reach this endless destination?”

“You must develop your abilities and reach your full potential. You have taken on a heavy burden that even the enormous mountains could not bear; you have committed to the great duty of being a steward on earth. Each day, strive to grow a little more. Shake off the dust and let yourself shine like a diamond. Your biggest mistake is focusing on material things while ignoring the art within you and all around you. Learn more about your Creator and observe the signs of the hereafter in this world, as you long for the ultimate union.”

“Wake up, wake up,” the sounds grow louder gradually. You feel someone shaking you. When you open your eyes, you see someone trying to wake you from your deep sleep. You regain consciousness and a smile forms on your face. “I’ve finally found it,” you whisper, even though the person in front of you can’t understand what you mean. Under their surprised gaze, you sit up, staring at a point in the distance. With a determined tone that indicates hope in the core of your heart, you say, “I have woken up, and I will stay awake no matter where I am or what troubles I face, until the day I reach my true destination...”