Getting Out of My Own Way
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving” – Lao Tzu
There comes a time in everyone’s life to embrace who he or she has become, to check the compass of one’s conscience and remember roads traveled.
There’s a road we all must take and it’s not always a straight one. There are choices to be made on which direction one will take to get to the destination they so desire. It has been said the shortest path between two points is a straight line. In my experience I have found the straight lines aren’t always as easy to follow as some would have you believe. I’ve also found the shortest path is simply never as interesting, especially when it comes to truly living life. There are those who prefer to stay within the safety and confines of the lines drawn on the playground lot. This way you won’t skin your knees. There’s nothing wrong with this, there is a lot to be said for safety and security, though you’ll never hear I’ve ever said any of it. There may be a lot which has been said but I suppose I’ve just never listened to it.
You see, there was a time when I was like most people, in a hurry to get wherever it was I was going. Everything had to be here yesterday. I was so worried about what I might miss I didn’t take the time to enjoy where I was at. Then by way of several of real life challenges and a series of hapful misadventures I learned the benefits of taking it easy. These days I’m in no hurry to get anywhere. The faster I move, the more impatient I am, the quicker it’s all over. If I have learned anything its life is far too short as it is. Why be in a hurry to get through it? Life is like a shadow on glass, there and gone.
There are the travelers and there are the visitors. Visitors have a plan in mind, they have a destination. Visitors come and they go taking with them what little they can remember and will soon forget. The true traveler has no destination, only the journey. It’s never about where they have been, what they have seen, it’s all about the experience of discovery, the chance encounters with other souls and what next path it will lead them on next. Their journey never ends, not in this life at least. I’ve never been a visitor. Visiting is too easy. Visitors just pass through always saying they will be back. As well intended as they may be most never return. Visitors take a piece of your heart and soul as a memento, travelers leave you a piece of theirs.
The life we live is the life we choose, choices made can be changed. It’s never too late to live. In the end when all the money and material possessions are gone your life experiences are your only worthwhile currency.
It took me some time to realize how a few key experiences and choices made as result of those experiences made my life and the path I chose take a decidedly different direction. Different than the one I initially thought it would take. Different from that I initially wanted my life to take. Like anyone I hope to one day have my travels documented. So I figured what better time than the present. Following will be the travels of a life in process of happening. It’s not so much about my life as it is about the life of an individual who shares commonalities with others out there. We have the choice of recognizing the differences or the similarities between us. It all a matter of viewpoint I suppose. I try to see the similarities we share.
I would love to hear from those out there how they feel and how they relate to what I share in my next several postings. I have a feeling we may have more in common than at first appears. The travels may be of the physical variety or the psychological, either way they all get us where we need to go. I have a belief we only end up where we consciously decide to. That said, I’m on my way back to where I’ve been, how it brought me to where I am and where I want to go next. All culminating in where I want to one day end up.
It’s a beautiful life out there waiting for you. All you we have to do is get out of our own way and let it happen.
A Gypsy Road 
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