The Nears of Afar

About the Book

When trouble comes to others, it seems so far away from us. But when trouble comes to us, it’s as near as our thoughts. As our tears begin to fall, so does our wellbeing that leaves emptiness in our soul.

What brings trouble to us? Could it be our negative thoughts, or could something be attracted to our negative thoughts, bringing trouble with them?

I have discovered that indeed trouble is brought to us by the Nears from the Land of Afar; creatures whose only mission is to make us cry at the bidding of their master Lord Misanthropy. Besides the sheer joy they receive from watching our pain, they require the tears to live. Our tears are their food. It doesn’t take a genius observing the world of tears being shed every day to realize they are gluttonous by nature.

This is the story of three humans who dared to laugh in our world of pain and tears, bringing this arrogant insult to the attention of the great Lord. Dispatching Nears with the help of a Sneakeeze to end this affront, Lord Misanthropy was sure the result would be a tearful end to this act of insolence. What it hadn’t counted on was the resolve of the humans to bring laughter back into our world. So be aware of your thoughts or you’ll bring the Nears.

BEWARE OF NEGATIVE THINKING
BAD THOUGHTS THAT APPEAR
FROM THE LAND OF AFAR
YOU’LL DRAW THEM NEAR
RUINING YOUR LIFE
WITH TROUBLE SO CLEAR

IN MISERABLE DISPAIR
DROWNING IN FEARS
WHAT NEXT WILL HAPPEN
AT THE HANDS OF THE NEARS
HELPLESSLY LOST
IN YOUR VEIL OF TEARS

About the Author

Once I was allowed my own freedom, I became an obsessed wanderer of life. First I wandered through institutions of education, sampling various nectars of knowledge. When I realized the unlimited career choices available, I couldn’t wander enough. I can’t describe all the wondrous sights going from working in a post office, ice cream cone factory, architecture, window design, real estate, car parking valet, to even horse logging. There are so many more I can’t list them all. What I saw as I wandered were stories within stories, woven together or just piled in heaps, making the mosaic of life. My true fascination wasn’t wealth, fame or recognition. It was the experience with its myriad cast of characters and events became a chapter in my storybook of life, to be told to those who would listen. I can’t help myself as I tell stories even about the mundane. Growing up in Muskoka, Ontario, storytelling of events long ago was the choice of desserts after a meal.

Served as a dish of hopeful expectations, full of a delicious mixture of fictional and factual substance, topped with an ample coating of illusionary fantasy, it was eaten with a spoon of curiosity, trying to fill a hunger of unbridled imagination that could never be truly realized. Sadly those storytellers are gone, so it’s my turn to tell the tales they now can’t do. Relating the tales of long ago, some will be fact, while some will be fiction. You be the judge as you read, while I tale on.