"Steps in the unknown" , by Erik Pevernagie, oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm  xx

We have to walk out on ourselves, expel ourselves from our inner castle, and drop our formatted masks if we want to encounter people in the flesh without makeup.

If we are prepared to take steps into the anonymous world, we accept to crush the daily grind and decide to explore the outer world.

When we challenge the unknown, we want to discover the undisclosed. By going down the steps to the unrevealed edges of life and finding the unknown, we learn to distinguish the unidentified nature of things.

If we ultimately want to know who we are and recognize our identity, we must find others' identity. By making friends with others, we can make friends with ourselves. In that way, we sense how, harmoniously, everything can fall into place.

What could we want more than being genuine and authentic? We all need a distinctive, substantial identity guiding us along the scary slopes of our life adventure and protecting us from unsuspected pitfalls. Still, our identity remains under construction and can often let us down, tossing us about in our daily journey and recurrently altering its policy.

Let our doom and gloom not creep into our day and lust for life not wither away. With the future as a brother-in-arms, steps in the unknown need not frighten.

Lust of life digs out hidden qualities and subdued yearnings from the silence of our inner self. If we give way to the desire to look above and beyond the limit of the horizon, we can perceive a fabulous range of unsuspected privileges unfolding in front of our eyes.

Phenomenon: The identity, discovery of the unknown

Factual starting point: Staircase