When I was in high school, I had lots of posters hanging on my bedroom wall — it was the thing in the 70’s!
My favorite had a picture of road running into the horizon at sunset with the Lao Tzu saying, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” A concept that I have kept with me ever since.
With good reason, journey is a metaphor used for the flow of our lives.
Our essential natures long for direction within the exploration of life.
We long to know, to grasp the illusive understanding which unlocks our hearts and sings our truth.
Journey provides direction and a method for following direction.
We go out into the unknown allowing the path of the journey’s road to guide our exploration, our search.
Frustratingly, journey is not without bumps and detours along the way.
Turning left when we mean right, or losing our way, or getting stuck in an endless traffic circle with seemingly no exit or progressing direction.
Along the way, we begin to realize that the journey’s direction is not in where we thought we were going.
Instead we learn that the journey is in the experience along the way and not, as Lao Tzu points out, in the destination.
In the spiritual journey, we ask ourselves to explore the deeper aspects of body, mind, heart and soul.
We look around for signs that we are on the right path or that we are walking or exploring properly.
And there are certainly many places to get advice, guidance or rules about how, when and where to proceed.
But there is no one right way.
We each have our own paths.
Within, we each have our own unique journeys.
And we are responsible for the choices we make in our explorations.
Your life is your journey.
Yet, we each seek along the same core of essential understanding.
Each journey travels the mountain of truth, of divine understanding.
Each journey strives to find self-truth in the successive mountain climbs we all make as we live our lives seeking essential clarity of our paths.
Not one path, many. Not many mountains, one.
To move beyond destination and explore your spiritual journey, check out my book:
How to Navigate the Five Steps of Your Spiritual Journey
