There is a form and an expression of our lives that transcends the obvious… . Who we are, and what we think and believe often goes beyond the conveniently knowable. Those who are patient enough and who spend any amount of effort trying to understand us and life in all it’s variances know this… intuitively. We know that we know more than we express. We know that we express more than we know. We think… We believe… And we at times come to doubt the many conclusions that many find sacred and have settled into.
For as long as we can, we may maintain the cadences that serve our stability in the environments we operate in. We travel the roads of life with due consideration of what we need to survive the expected and unexpected circumstances that we may need to find our way through or around. Along our way we seek, and sometimes we find the kinds of relationships that help us come to terms with the many unexpressed waverings of our hearts and minds. We search for, and if we are fortunate enough, we find the company of kindred souls that afford us needed transient comfort.
Notwithstanding all the help we may get, and despite the comfort and encouragement of others; we will come to that place where we must admit that the journey to meaning is arduous… is complicated… is inconsistent… is inconclusive … . As much as we may enjoy the respite of being with kindred souls, we eventually must embrace the essential loneliness of our journey through this realm... this life. We are often reminded that we come into this existence alone, and we will leave it alone. We may enjoy, or come to depend on some of the interactions we have in the time and space between the two known points of our being… birth and death. We may not enjoy or depend on some others. The flux between exploration and discovery is a rodeo we all come to know. Between bumps and bruises; somewhere between ups and downs; beyond our conquests and the pain of defeat - we learn to admit our shortcomings and go on to the next day in our experience.
At a certain point we come to realize that it is not important to act or sound certain about our positions. It is not essential that others understand or agree with us. Indeed it is not even essential that we agree with ourselves! A timely realization of the efficacy of this remedial position sets us free from those stuck in the mud places that hinder our progress. In the quest for greater wisdom it is important that we acknowledge that mostly… we do not know. The longing to arrive at that place where we have durable answers to our many questions is real. But that longing will remain just that… a longing. The questions, we come to acknowledge, are more important than the answers. The journey is more important than a particular destination. Traveling with patience and a durable honesty is more important than arriving… .
And so it is… . Our journey is by definition an odyssey - a pilgrimage of sorts. There is no end, just new beginnings.
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