Finding your way through life

I often enjoy a good road trip, especially here in the Intermountain West, during summer when the roads are clear and the skies are big. Sometimes, on such a drive, when I was a younger lad, when the landscape outside the windshield looked barren, and the sun began to descend on the horizon, I felt lost and alienated. One can understand that happening considering how big things are out West and how physically small we are in comparison. I realize that in life, there are times when we feel similarly – a sense of aloneness, of vulnerability perhaps, or fear that we may have lost our way. Every time that happened, I would recall an essay written by James Maslow called “Anguish, Forlorness & Despair.” As I have matured and become more confident and comfortable with myself and the varied landscapes of this life, I rarely, if ever, have more than just a flashing glimpse of that once troublesome feeling. There are things we all share, such as negative or positive emotions, and different situations elicit different sentiments for each of us. Yet, we all share them at times, in one way or another.

The truth is that we are all on a journey across the ocean of existence. What is needed most is a goal and purpose, a clear idea of a destination or an ideal that we want to get close to and which will help carry us safely across this vast, mysterious sea. How can we become fit for this journey, and who will we be when approaching our ideal? Some of us have a wife or a husband, a fiancee or a child or a mentor that can help accompany us through some, if not much, of this journey known as life. Yet some of us find ourselves alone, with seemingly no one to turn to or fill that empty place, whether we are indeed on our own or not. But are we ever truly alone? Christians have Christ to guide them, Buddhists have bodhisattvas to watch over them, Hindus have their ishta to cling to, Sikhs have their blessed eternal Gurus, and Muslims have their prophet to point the way for them. That is true if they are engaged in their faith. However, human beings have a propensity for forgetfulness, especially us folks in the modern world distracted by careers, fleeting pleasures, and the often harsh demands of today’s world. It can be daunting overall, and our relationship with the divine can be easily lost or overlooked. Likewise, tending to ourselves in the form of our inner life, our emotional and intellectual health can also suffer from neglect as we fixate on exterior dramas, work, family, friends, entertainment, and pastimes.

When we are young and healthy, it can seem as if we have all the time in the world to tend to the road ahead eventually; the inner journey can perhaps wait a bit. But this is a mistake, for as we get older and enter the final chapters of our lives, we can begin to sense the urgency, and if we are genuinely aware of our state of being, we can feel as if there is not enough time to correct our path, regain our direction and achieve our goals. Too often, our exterior life and the goals we set, we find later in life, were somewhat meaningless and inconsequential to the furtherance of our species as a whole. For some, they have even been detrimental. Yet fewer people have achieved a life rich in culture and charity, enrichment of others, creativity, and invention. Some of us have a strong sense of achievement and movement toward the ultimate, while others fall short of their initial expectations. Either way, whoever we are, it is essential to take stock of oneself and examine one’s life and values, beliefs, and results with cold, objective analysis, not to judge but to unveil the complete truth and honesty of the matter. That is a self-work not undertaken without conscious effort and exploring our unconscious drives and state of being. This practice will give us a contextual sense of our place in the world, in the cosmos itself, and serve as a compass that can be read to denote our position relative to our “true north.”

I invite you to permit me to help you on this journey of self-discovery, regaining or advancing your direction and a sense of meaning and purpose while redefining clear and worthy goals. You are welcome to read my blog posts if you find them helpful, or to dive deeper into a journey of self-discovery and self-work by booking a series of appointments.