That’s what I’m grateful for today, though to be honest, I’m not always that grateful for the journey. I try to be, let’s put it that way. I’m working on it. I want to enjoy the journey, at least most of the time.
For much of my life, I’d classify myself as a strictly destination person. Let’s get there. The shortest route between two points is definitely the way to go. Why road trip when you can fly? Is there a fast forward button? You know the type…results-oriented, I like to say.
The destination is what always held promise for me. When I get there, then everything will be great. That was true in life, too. I can’t wait to graduate from college and start working; then, my life will really begin. Oh, once I finish law school or get this promotion or move to this place, then everything will be perfect. The life I was supposed to be having was always out there somewhere.
That thinking utterly ignores right now. Today. This minute. It squanders all my energy and excitement on some time or place in the future that may or may not ever arrive. And it snatches away the quiet peace that can only be found in the present, in doing the right thing today, in being my best self at this moment.
Of course, it’s not always peaceful right now. Right now sometimes –well–sucks to put it kindly. But right now is absolutely any of us has really has. Mindfullness classes, books, meditation programs all converge around one inescapable truth: the past is over, the future has not yet arrived so this moment is the only one I can live in.
Along with that comes enjoying the journey, not just the destination. My path has not be linear. It has not be conventional. My life today, in fact, is almost nothing like what I thought my life should be or could be. It’s better in some ways and not as good in others.
But it is inescapably mine so I might as well embrace it and enjoy it.
Boonedoggler 