Since childhood curiosity was the inseparable side of my character. I never followed any ideology or belief but also never rejected one before carefully examining it. But also I leaned that there may be something to learn in any experience. That curiosity lead me to search for the truth and secrets of our being in Zen Monasteries, mosques, Churches, Buddhist or Jewish Temples, etc, Thinking they have the final answer of "who Am I?"
"If you wake up 40 days in row, swipe and wash the pedestrian pavement in front of our house, and then do a morning prayer (on the day forty) and old man would show up, the prophet Khidr." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khidr)"-grandma said, after a deep puff on her tiny cigarette.
I was listening with eyes wide open. "What can he do for me, grandma?"
"Oh my child, he will give you anything you wish for." - she said smiling.
I smiled too when that thought passed through my mind. "Why not everyone just do that 40 day trick once and live the rest of the life comfortably by getting what is the matters mostly for them, wether it is a financial wish or an answer to a big question?" I asked myself.
For a 10 year old child, that was not easy keeping up with those tasks every single day for forty days , but I got it done and that was the first time that I lost the belief in my grandma. The blank canvas of my mind was scratched for the first time.
Photo source: https://medium.com/freedom-of-thought/the-green-one-al-khidr-524ef7c5ec8c