One day, around Christmas, travelers arrived in an unfamiliar, beautiful area. It was getting dark. Against the backdrop of the sunset, beautiful villages were visible on the mountain slopes. Quiet, cozy lights lit up in the windows of the houses. Noticing local residents on the road, the visitors asked them: “Tell me, what are the names of these beautiful villages in the distance?” - “These? And these are our villages – Happiness and Joy!” - “How can we get to these villages?” – The travelers asked. - “Do you see this road? Those villages of Happiness and Joy can only be reached along one road, which leads through the village of Sorrow. It’s just that the village of Sorrow is not visible from here, it is located in a hole. And the road to those villages passes only through Skorbi, that’s it...” - The residents answered. But interested travelers wanted to find another road themselves, a more direct one. All night they wandered along different roads and in the morning they saw that they had gone to a completely different area. - “It seems that there is really only one road to those villages - through the village of Sorrow” - The travelers summed up their wanderings and searches. Source: Simeon of Athos Ascent to Heaven
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru