Destinations:  Dublin, London, Athens, Prague, Budapest, Rome.   My daughter’s travel schedule for the next four months is neatly laid out with itineraries, travel buddies, airplanes, trains and buses, lots of euros, and a journal to record it all in.  Oh, and 17 little credits of classes to keep her focused on not having way too much fun!

Life destinations:  ?

Wouldn’t it be great if this journey we are on would list destinations just like train stops?  Instead of saying “Now approaching  Finley Square, Yorktown Center, Fountainhead,  Harbor Mall, etc” , we would hear the announcer say, ” You are now approaching level 3 life training, level 4, level 5″ as if our journey were linear and we actually graduated each time we learned something new.  Finally we would hear ” You have reached your final destination!  You have made it to ________(fill in the blank).  You can now get off the train and be on vacation for the rest of your life.  No more learning necessary.”  I think in the real world this is called death.

Unfortunately there is no getting off this life train, unless we exit horizontally.  Some of us are just much more aware that life is full of unending lessons.   If we really did have an announcer telling us about our journey, it would sound more like  ” Now approaching high levels of confusion, breakthrough, breathe, love  and assimilate, high levels of confusion…”    Once you have had a breakthrough and acquire knowledge, you just can’t go back to not knowing something.  I can’t just assume anymore that the headache I have is because of a physical ailment.  I now have to look at the mental, emotional and spiritual connections as well.   Sometimes I wish there was a stop called “Somewhere” , a place I could sit in a meadow of flowers and know that all the problems in my life were being taken care of.    No, I totally get my life is full of  AFGOs–Another f—— growth opportunity! ( Check out Geneen Roth’s book Women, Food and God)

I follow my intuition, trusting that I am being led down a certain path for a reason.  When that path appears to dead end, I always want to think that my intuition was wrong. Confusion sets in, making me second guess all my decisions.

Luckily I am breaking through that old thinking and  am beginning to trust myself more and understand maybe the path didn’t really lead to a dead end.   I am just not yet aware of the new path that will appear off of this going nowhere road.      If I am so focused on getting to the exact destination, even if it is wrong,  I might completely miss the little path that leads to my next big adventure.    I don’t know how long this new path will last either. Maybe another path will appear out of the woods.  And maybe my intuition will tell me that is a good place to be.

Life is all about learning to love me, and loving those around me,  no matter what road I end up on.  It is about being ok with the journey, and not always waiting to “arrive” somewhere.  There is no’ somewhere’ out there.   NOW is all there really is, and what I do with this moment will lead me to another decision in the next.  Learning to accept my path, and walking on it even through the challenges prepares me for the next stop on this train trip, even though I don’t have any idea what that is.

I only hope that my journey, wherever it takes me, helps me to learn to love others, and especially myself more deeply, accepting and trusting that I am in the right place, at the right time.