On My Path

This is meant as a sort of meditation - with pictures and music.

Listen to this beautiful African chant by Ayub Ogada if you like… along the way.

Take your time…..

A pristine virgin path, if I ever saw one.

Right through the middle of Bedfordshire. UK.

I’m the only one on it.

Today?

In life?

It’s hard to decipher.

My ex always used to say,

You come into life by yourself and… you leave that way.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. — Gautama Buddha

In the Beginning…

No, not the Bible’s.

But for the first 21 years… of my own life… the one I know about best,

There was only one path:

Be good, be honest, study hard, and your path will lead you straight to… medical school.

But,

Somewhere along the way, in the late 1960s, my path veered.

There was a fork in the road.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. I took the one less traveled by.
And that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost

Who knows? It might have been the marijuana, the tuning in, the letting go, the discovery of my truer self,

But I didn’t go down the path to law school or medical school. Where all my childhood friends went. No, against all odds and expectations, I became a modern dancer.

And then…

And then...

And then….

What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and acts of the moment that create your future. The outline of your future path already exists, for you created its pattern by your past. - Sai Baba

I’m always amazed when I hear about someone who, from their early youth, imagined their life going a specific way. They saw and wanted a certain thing. To become a doctor, a filmmaker, a chef, a ballerina. And with a lot of hard work and a little luck, they became exactly that.

Most of us aren’t so clear-sighted or so fortunate. We don’t know… what we want, who we are, what path to follow.

Some of us choose a path, arrive at our destination, only to discover that it wasn’t where we should have headed at all.

Convention, conformity, wealth, security, prestige, possessions, pleasing others…. the list of misdirection goes on.

Adversity is the first path to truth. - Lord Byron

Some paths are not walked alone.

There are friendships, partnerships, marriages, families, neighborhood and spiritual communities, co-workers, bosses, pets, teachers, mentors, teams, clubs, and enemies.

Some come, others go.

Nothing is permanent. There is only change.

Many paths diverge in many woods.

What path should one follow?

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling. I want to be strong, I want to laugh along, I want to belong to the living. - Joni Mitchell

I recognize that I’ve walked, run, and stumbled along an unusual, unique path. It’s been totally my own. Perhaps that’s true of everyone?

But I’m still in the woods.

It’s just that I’m a lot more comfortable being here now.

I don’t know where I’m heading or what will happen next.

Except…

…there will be an end.

Or not?

Reincarnation? Eternal life? Re-birth until you get it right?

I’m an atheist, and I don’t need a God or an afterlife.

But your belief is as good as mine.

For a while, there may be no path. Just a big open field. Rolling hills. An unclimbable mountain. Stasis. Worry. Loss. Anxiety. Disappointment. Self-doubt.

What then?

If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress. - Barack Obama

But if you’re walking down “the wrong path”?

That’s not mentioned in too many motivational books or AI searches.

But there can be many missteps, many wrong paths. Temporary. Or permanent.

What then?

Stop? Get off the path? Start a new one?

Ha! This path above looks too good to be true.

But… I was on this one too — just recently.

I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we're all teachers - if we're willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts, and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door. - Marla Gibbs

The air is fresh and cool now in the UK. Much cooler than when I first arrived a month ago, and much, much cooler than the furnace of southern France in late June.

I depart again this Sunday for another housesit, traveling from historical former wool-making Guildford in the Surrey Hills - to Nottingham, where I expect to see Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men, Friar Tuck, Little John, and Will Scarlett, along with the Sheriff of Nottingham - on my path through Sherwood Forest.

Why not? Chance meetings. Unexpected events. Accident and incident. Just the way the rest of my life has happened to me. Little planning. Few goals actually accomplished.

Still, a good life. Full of coincidence, synchronicity, and/or fate, again depending on what you believe.

And hell, I’d rather see Mr. Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor than Mr. Trump robbing the poor to give to the rich!

Wish me luck. Bonne chance. Buena suerte. Viel glück. In bocca al lupo.

However you want to say it.

I know I’ll need it.

xo

- Trules

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