Jim Adams is the music-loving host of Mindlovemisery Menagerie’s Music Challenges.  Jim says:
The challenge today is to focus on [“One Way Out” by The Allman Brothers] and use it for inspiration in any form of creative expression (including but not limited to short stories, a piece of flash fiction, poems, lyrics, artwork, photography, (etc.) that you can share with the writing community.

Jim talks about a peach being a metaphor for life, and I think it’s a wonderful metaphor. Another metaphor for life, connected to the title, One Way Out, is the labyrinth. There is often confusion between a maze and a labyrinth and the terms are often used interchangeably, but they are different.

A maze has one way in and out, but along the way there are false turns that can lead to dead ends. With a labyrinth, there are no false turns. You walk through turns, along curves, and various geometric designs until you reach the center, then you walk out the same path in reverse.

As I’m typing this I see that, depending on a person’s point of view, they could consider life more like a maze, and others could consider it more like a labyrinth.

If you see it like a maze, then there suggests a great level of self-determination and learning along life’s path, where you can make wrong choices, learn from them, and carry on along the path until you reach the end. With this perspective you hope to get things figured out before you get to “the end” (i.e. die.) What’s next is dependent on your belief system.

If you see it like a labyrinth, there is more of a pre-ordained aspect to it, where the mistakes are already built into the journey. You’re still learning, but there is a sense of fate. With the labyrinth, there is also a life force that drives a person to deconstruct the mistakes, events, etc. that were experienced along the way, so by the time you “get back out” (i.e. die) you are ready for what’s next. What’s next is dependent on your belief system.

I’m more of a labyrinth person. I love the idea of eating a peach while walking one.

People have been fascinated with labyrinths for a long time and there is a wealth of information on them out there on them. I’ve walked them, studied them, and am convinced they are portals/generators for/of energy. I would encourage everyone reading this to learn more about labyrinths. You might be surprised how many of them are found around the globe. There is a website dedicated to showing where they are. I used it to find a couple very close to here. If you’re interested in seeing where the closest labyrinth is to you, go here.

What metaphors do you use for life?