Tyler glided through the endless skies with grace and ease, wrapped in an overwhelming sense of delight. He effortlessly charted his course through the ever-shifting sea of clouds, encountering breathtaking panoramas in every direction. The heavens served as an artist's palette, displaying a vivid array of colors, including deep indigo lakes and rivers below, trees adorned with brilliant crimson foliage, and grand canyons bustling with vibrant life.

These sights eluded mere words, resembling scenes plucked from the pages of a beloved fantasy novel, almost too surreal to believe.

Surrounded by swirling gusts of wind, he experienced an exhilarating and novel sensation. In that instant, he was genuinely soaring, unburdened by any limitations or constraints. Bathed in the sun's comforting warmth on his face, he peered downward, gaining a more comprehensive view of the world below.

The vista from such lofty heights was both breathtaking and enthralling, reminiscent of the excitement of standing at the summit of Mount Everest and beholding the world below. And just as this notion crossed his mind, Tyler abruptly descended into a free fall.

THUMP

Shit that hurts. Tyler woke up facedown on the ground of his bedroom. He checked his alarm: 04:49 AM, and since it was only a matter of minutes before the alarm would go off, he decided to get up. He quickly got dressed—shorts, T-shirt, hoodie, socks, shoes—before the sound of the ringing clock. Oh, and the cap. Can’t forget the running cap.

Before stepping outside, he drank a couple glasses of water before brushing his teeth. Then, after a few minutes, he put on his headphones and selected his favorite playlist.

The outside was still pitch black, with only the street lights providing a semblance of life. By the time his run was over, the sun would be up, or at least, it would be halfway there. Running through the dark streets alone, he always felt a sense of liberation, the world only revolving around him and his running shoes.

He had set out for his morning run, determined to make the most of this time before the sun rose. He made his way through familiar roads until he reached a trail bordering one of the great lakes in Canada. He felt himself break away from all his problems, almost as if in a meditative trance, trudging forward one step at a time to the sound of music.

He reveled in this moment of peacefulness. He knew that when the sun rose, it would be back to routine as usual. Back to work. Tyler wanted to take advantage of the cooler part of the day to run, so naturally, early morning before sunrise is the best of times.

After an hour outside, he noticed the sun peeking its nose over the horizon, slowly tainting the skies an orange hue, signifying that it was time to start heading home before it got too hot.

He safely returned to his street after a return journey, which took slightly more time than the first half of the run. His total running time was 2 hours flat for 22 km. He was satisfied with his performance—he had improved.

Upon reaching his residence, Tyler observed that some of his neighbors' lights remained unlit while others were starting their vehicles to commute to work. It was really empowering to him to know that the most challenging part of his day was done before most people were even awake!

Having run a half marathon, Tyler stopped to rehydrate himself and grab a few things for the day and his gym bag inside the house but swiftly stepped out once more to keep going towards the gym, finishing his morning run with a 4km walk cooldown. This was where his workday would commence.

Arriving around 7:30, he joined his Sergeant for a brief roll call before proceeding to the weight room, focusing on upper-body exercises due to his fatigue from the morning run. After 45 minutes, Tyler showered at the gym and walked directly to work. He had ample amounts of time before work actually began, so he took his sweet time walking in.

Living in a larger town allowed him to relish the benefits of urban life while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. At the office, Tyler was recognized as Cpl Reed, his surname. Interestingly, despite its correct spelling, people often mistook it for "Read" instead of "Reed." In retrospect, their misinterpretation was entirely accurate, given Tyler's unwavering penchant for seizing every opportunity to immerse himself in books during his leisure time.

As Tyler made his way to work, he encountered numerous familiar faces from his neighborhood, with people driving past him and waving.

Despite the common perception of military personnel as hardworking and driven individuals, Tyler knew this was not always the case.

Many of them chose to take a short drive instead of walking even the smallest distances, which he found interesting how lazy individuals could be, especially considering the cost of gas you spend for a 2-minute drive every day. Not counting the time you let your car idle in the winter for it to get hotter… a waste of money, Tyler thought.

Contrary to the portrayal in movies, Tyler understood that the army was not solely composed of super hardworking and morally upright individuals or trigger-happy soldiers killing 78 people in an afternoon.

In reality, the military represented a fairly accurate cross-section of the population, albeit with a slightly more right-leaning political inclination. Most people's jobs were far from the front lines; the army required an extensive support system to keep it running.

During Tyler’s brief 20-minute walk, he occupied his time by listening to a podcast, bringing him closer to the duty shack of his workplace.

“ID?” a duty guard said.

“Josh, I’ve been walking in here every day for the last 3 years, and you still don’t recognize me?” Tyler answered.

“Recognize or not, it’s procedure. People in civvies have to show ID, you know this.” The duty guard said with furrowed brows.

“Fine, fine…” He answered with a smile while showing his ID and walking away towards his office to get changed.

As a few people waved at him, Tyler offered a brief wave in return, but having his headphones on, they did not initiate conversations. He simply wanted the day to be over already. It was Monday, after all. That day was often considered the gloomiest day of the week, and in his opinion, it wasn’t too far off.

Firstly, Mondays were not as terrible as some made them out to be, but they were certainly far from good. The fact that they forcefully disrupted the weekend was enough to earn them the label of an "Evil Day."

Secondly, the real worst day of the week was undoubtedly Tuesday. It felt like a worse version of Monday. On Mondays, the only downside was adjusting to returning to work after the weekend. But, not much actual work got done as people were busy chatting about their weekends and not entirely focused on their tasks.

Socializing and catching up were the priorities, which is cool. Humans are social creatures, and to be frank, a workplace where people can't even talk to each other gets really toxic, really fast.

However, Tuesday was a different story altogether. It was the day when the realization hit that the week was still far from over, with four full days remaining until the weekend. The pressure to get work done started to sink in. Therefore, Tuesday was unequivocally the worst day of the week in Tyler's perspective.

However, it wasn't the work itself that made Tyler dislike Tuesdays. He preferred to keep to himself and focus on his tasks, especially on Mondays when others were less likely to bother him. This was precisely why he held such disdain for Tuesdays. On that day, the bosses would often get involved in the day-to-day affairs after spending their Mondays "catching up."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As a result, everyone seemed to be prying into his business when all he wanted was to simply get his work done without unnecessary interference and then just get back home. It was frustrating for Tyler.

As he had come in early, he got to his morning routine. He prepared a protein shake and some oats for breakfast that he always kept at work, taking advantage of the surplus of time he had every morning. Additionally, he prepared himself a sizeable reusable bottle of water, to which he added a tablet of electrolytes to compensate for the loss of fluids he had during his morning run.

When he was done with everything, Tyler realized he still had thirty minutes to spare before he needed to make his way to his workstation. So, he indulged in half an hour of reading before starting work. But was promptly interrupted after 10 minutes.

“So, Reed. What are you up to today?” Tyler heard from behind. He recognized the voice. His Sergeant.

Without turning around, he answered. “Doing all the paperwork for the kit that was taken out of the deployed seacan. It’s all N/S, apparently, ALL. OF. IT… Like, who in the fuck took care of this overseas? It needs to be sent back, and some of it is repairable, so I have to sift through the lot to find the repairable ones and send those to the techs.”

“Ah. Got it. Sounds good. If you need help, let me know, and I’ll task some of the guys to you.” the Sergeant answered.

“I’ll be fine, man. Thanks. I would love to be able to have my phone in here, though. That would certainly help me if I had anything else than this shitty fucking radio music…” Tyler answered jokingly.

“Yeah I feel you on that man. EMSEC zones, you know how it is..” the Sgt said.

“Yeah, I know... I just like to endlessly bitch about it. Maybe someone will get tired of me mentioning it and will actually amend the RFCs.” Tyler said with a slight chuckle.

With that, he finished his chapter and got to work right on time. A few people bothered him occasionally, but it was mostly quiet for the rest of the morning.

Eventually, his Sgt reminded him of lunchtime, and Tyler promptly dropped all work and ventured over to the lunch room. During lunchtime, Tyler heated his meal in the microwave before going into the back of the room to read in peace while eating.

It was one of Hemmingway’s classics, The Old Man and the Sea. Tyler had revisited this novel over the years, his first time reading it in high school, opening his mind to literature for the first time. The second was as a young adult, barely 19, and almost a decade later. Every time he read this book, his perspective on life evolved, and he saw new meanings in the old man’s struggle against life.

Soon enough, he was done with his chapter and meal, returning to his Excel spreadsheet and the emails regarding all this equipment.

Not long after lunch, his Sergeant was back to bother him, but to his surprise, it was to tell him to wrap up for the day! 14:00. Early release? That’s nice. He thought to himself.

Tyler usually kept to himself at work, as he did not enjoy all the social aspects of the military. He was on good terms with his coworkers and actually enjoyed their company most of the time. But he enjoyed himself more.

For those of you unaware, about three-quarters of the people in the military do not do any work unless they are deployed or in the field or, you know, are being actively… motivated. So when they are in garrison, they tend to do a lot of socializing.

Ultimately, they are just too jaded to care about anything other than fieldwork, which is understandable. Why burn yourself out on mundane, day-to-day garrison work in an organization that does not care about you? They get abused enough as it is; there's no need to add to it by overworking oneself.

At least that’s what most thought, Tyler included. He had been doing this for about a decade, joined when he was 19, and went through his own “I’m too good for this work” phase when returning from his first and second deployments. Now 28, he couldn’t care less. Work was just a way to pass the time and not go absolutely insane with boredom.

It also helped that he quite enjoyed his job on top of the pretty decent pay. Solving new problems every week and seeing very few repetitive tasks was nice. Not to mention all the paid leave days! Oh, the paid leave days… Of course, like everyone else, he had to deal with his fair share of “Army Bullshit,” but hey, not everything can be all sunshine and rainbows.

Even though he was good at his job, it wasn’t a hobby. At home? Reading and video games can only keep you occupied for so long.

As for a social life, you might ask? Yeah, no. Besides the forced social gatherings work imposed on him, Tyler was not so much a socialite. He very much liked to stay by himself and work through projects at home. He had a few friends. True friends. But those were now all across the country, posted to different units, and he hadn’t seen them since his new posting last year.

***

Upon returning home, Tyler opted to sit on the living room floor and meditate for a half hour to effectively "switch off" from his job and clear his mind before starting on his evening project. Meditation has been an essential part of his life for a few years now. Initially, he was only able to remain in a meditative state for a short amount of time before his distracted thoughts began to resurface.

He explored various techniques until he finally discovered one that worked for him and that he genuinely enjoyed. He eventually replicated the euphoric feeling he got while running, which cleared his mind of any troubles.

Sitting down in a lotus position, he imagined himself on a miniature sandy island no larger than his living room, gazing off at an infinite ocean. Every stray thought brought about a swell, and any ideas generated a strong breeze across the seas, causing even bigger waves. Initially, the swells were sufficiently high for surfers to enjoy themselves for hours. Audible gusts of wind drifted over the sea, adding to the chaos.

Taking a few moments to relax and regain control of his thoughts, the tumultuous surface of the ocean began to settle. Over time, the once-roaring seas became increasingly calm, almost resembling the result of a pebble gently dropped into the water rather than a force of nature. The waves diminished until they were barely noticeable, and eventually, complete stillness descended. The wind's sound vanished, and the entire ocean stretched to the unmoving horizon, enveloped in absolute silence.

This reminded Tyler of a Buddhist text he had read some time ago, which went like this:

"The body is the bodhi tree,

The mind is like a clear mirror.

At all times, we must strive to polish it,

And must not let the dust collect."

Tyler saw a parallel between this text and his current situation. He viewed the island as his body and the serene ocean as his mind. In his understanding, this perspective encouraged the gradual and methodical process of achieving and maintaining a pure and clear mind—a state akin to empty awareness or the concept of the mind's emptiness.

It aimed to attain unity of mind, body, and heart to achieve self-enlightenment. While there were variations in translation and interpretations of this concept, this one resonated deeply with Tyler. By consistently calming the turbulent waters of his mind, he felt he was gradually progressing toward this state of oneness.

At this point, approximately 10 minutes had passed since Tyler began his meditation. In the past, it used to take him the entire half-hour session to reach this state, but now things were different. Although he had not yet achieved complete oneness of mind, body, and heart, Tyler persisted in his efforts to calm the turbulent seas of his consciousness until he could see his own perfect reflection upon their surface.

As time continued its steady march, the ocean grew eerily still, but Tyler no longer paid attention to its unmoving expanse. Instead, he found himself naturally focused on the clear reflection of his body on the tranquil water's surface.

His physical form mirrored his real body on the outside, and he could distinctly feel every part of himself as he concentrated. For the first time, he had achieved a much deeper state of unity between his mind and body than he had ever experienced.

Gradually, as he maintained this state, Tyler began to uncover certain truths about himself.

His physical sensations were more vivid and genuine than ever before. He could perceive each muscle, joint, and even the tiniest hair on his body at a profound, intrinsic level that was entirely new to him.

By methodically examining every inch of his form through its reflection in the peaceful sea, he forged a profound connection between his body and mind, an experience unprecedented in his life.

Unaware of the outside world, Tyler’s intense focus on the connection between body and mind initiated subtle shifts within him. This profound experience revealed the fragility and preciousness of his existence, leading to a newfound sense of harmony and spiritual growth that brought about subtle changes in his mental state.

This process was not rooted in theological implications but was a journey of deep self-awareness.

Tyler gradually released the grip of lingering resentments and negative memories. He embarked on a path of self-forgiveness and extending forgiveness to others, recognizing that holding onto these trivial conflicts only inflicted prolonged distress upon his heart and wasn't worth the suffering they caused.

Only an hour had passed during Tyler's contemplation, and his tranquil oceanic island had dramatically transformed.

He maintained a lotus position, isolated on an island surrounded by serene, tranquil waters, and this entire scene was encased within a snow globe-like structure. This crystalline sphere hung suspended in the vast expanse of space, emitting a faint glow. Tyler's body cast a feeble illumination that gradually faded as the surrounding emptiness of space enveloped it entirely.

Unaware of these profound changes, Tyler continued his meditation. For the first time, he had truly disconnected his mind from reality, and his body slowly started to float through space. What awaited him at the end of his meditation was beyond his expectations and understanding.