I was looking at one of the pictures I took on our walk the other day (the one you see here) and was reminded of the divergences in the path of life I’ve taken. You can’t see it in this shot, but the two paths come together again later, one is shorter, the other is considerably longer. Yup, just like some of the paths I’ve taken in life that seemed to be round about ways to get to the same place I probably could have gotten to if I’d taken a more direct route but for whatever reason, I needed to take the long one, the one where I made many mistakes and did any number of foolish things before linking back up to the path that is taking me Home.
We tend to walk the long path on our daily treks because we want the exercise. I wonder if that isn’t what goes on for the Soul when we take long, round about ways to waking up. Perhaps the Soul wants the exercise and the experiences we have doing all those things on the long route. How would I learn compassion if I didn’t make painful choices the same as others do so that I can know what it is like to suffer? I would have no connection to what people are undergoing if I too didn’t have similar experiences in my life. It is never exactly the same of course and it doesn’t have to be for us to get a sense of the depth of feeling one may be going through.
I have to say it also reminded me of the time I was in Nepal on my own and I had connected with this little family for a few days. We were staying just outside a tiny mountain village and went walking the opposite direction from the village in our explorations one day. The husband and I decided to go off the path thinking it would connect again later but it did not. Paths in those mountains twist and turn in every direction it seems. We were very wrong about where the path had been leading and got into a little trouble when the going got really steep. We decided to split up for some unknown reason and go it on our own. Well, I got a real scare and almost fell down the side of that mountain before reconnecting with him and then finally making our way back to where we were staying, a wee bit worse for wear. His wife was pretty suspicious after our longer than expected absence, but we finally convinced her we were out there just trying to stay alive and find our way back, no hanky panky involved.
That’s one experience I’ll never forget; sometimes the paths don’t reconnect later on. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try making our own way, but there is always a risk.
Namaste
