Journeying?

Learn the Lessons

“It is better to go slow and gain the lessons along the journey than to rush the process and arrive at your destination empty.”

Germany Kent

The idea that life is a journey has been around for as long as humans have had language. That may be because in our early days of being hunter-gatherers, life really was a journey—we traveled from place to place in search of food. Native Americans, Bedouins, original populations on every continent, moved from summer grounds to winter grounds according to where conditions were optimal for hunting. One big difference then was that everyone in the tribe traveled together. They understood their interdependence. There was no such thing as rugged individualism—at least, not if you wanted to survive.

In many fairy tales and myths from every culture, as well as our modern stories, long journeys are taken. From Odysseus and Demeter, to Jack Kerouac, Anthony Bourdain and today's international journalists, the journey continues to intrigue us. Along the way, journeying men and women confront challenges, sometimes life-threatening ones. Some journeys include ventures into the underworld, usually to retrieve something, or someone, precious. As they go, they experience other cultures, values and lifestyles. They sample strange foods. They travel over oceans, deserts, and mountains, endure hardships, celebrate joys. They get lost, and sometimes, if they are fortunate, found. The worst thing that can happen along the way is to fall in with the wrong people and not know how to escape. Sometimes, we/they are captured for long periods of what seems like wasted time. But there is no such thing as wasted time if we are open to the lessons that each experience teaches. You can see why the "journey" is archetypal; a metaphor for life itself.

At this moment, I have a friend who is going trough a life-fracturing divorce, another who is battling ovarian cancer, another who is trying to learn how to live life as newly paraplegic. These are modern day journeys into Hades. We naturally cringe and shrink in the face of such terrifying circumstances. In every case, a candle of hope burns. The possibility of light exists. We have witnessed just in the past week, both the joys of Olympic glory, and the shattering of young lives by senseless violence. This is our journey. It is one we are taking together. We must hold the candle high for one another.

                                                              In the Spirit,

                                                                  Jane