That Other Something About the Journey

I have travelled many roads in my life. Some journies I took to follow a dream or to realize an ambition. Some journies I took simply to find out what I would find just around the bend of the road. There were also the journies I took to escape the seemingly overwhelming realities of my life at that specific moment.When one journey ended, another began. I find myself at 61 setting out on yet another stage of my wanderings, less afraid now of what might happen next. Anymore, I do have a fair idea of what can happen along the way and I am a more seasoned traveller now, better able to deal whatever comes my way.

I have discovered a curious reality about the different stages of my meandering travels. Usually I went in a particular direction to accomplish a specific goal. It turns out that the most significant thing that happened to me, each step along the way, was that I was destined to cross paths with certain people, who would become an important part of my life... people who would prove to have a profound impact on my life, for better or for worse. Much like the hero of the television series, JourneyMan, I set out on missions, never fully aware of what I was really going after or what I would encounter. I set out on journies never knowing who I would meet or why it was that I was meant to come to know them. That is the part of the mystery of the future that seems to me to be the most difficult to discern beforehand...and occasionally the most dangerous aspect. It is a critical skill to know how to size up the people we meet along the way.

The smallest common denomenator of our life is a day. Each day is a journey in itself and we will meet so many people in the course of even 24 hours. Which person is going to someone we need to know and to learn from? Which person should we avoid, at any cost? Which person is one for whom we will make a difference in his or her life? After awhile, only hard won experience enabled me to answer those questions with any level of competence. You see, no one ever told me about that other something that I had to be on the lookout for, in the course of my wanderings. I had to learn that for myself.

Thanksgiving Day 2007: A Reason to Be Thankful

Thanksgiving day has come and gone. The family gathering is over and we ate too much, as usual. We enjoyed the annual game of Liverpool Rummy and took in the traditional football games on television. It was a really lovely day, and I have a particular reason for being appreciative and grateful.

This year I came to terms with who I am, faults and all. I have finally been able to like the fellow I see in the mirror. So what, you say. I respond that that is no mean accomplishment. It makes a critical difference in my experience at Thanksgiving. In the past I was there, but I was acutely uncomf0rtable with the other people at the gathering. At the time, I really disliked myself and I projected my own feelings about myself into what I thought other people were thinking about me. I had this profound need to impress or to justify my existence. In short, there was no way that I could just enjoy the moment.

Now I can because I have simply accepted that we are who are, for better or worse. The only thing we can do with our lives is to make the best of what we are given. Now I can, because I have realized that the only thing we have is the moment we are in. We are never given any guarantees that there will be a tomorrow or how many tomorrows there will be. We have no guarantees that any of our dreams or ambitions will ever be realized. The only thing we can have with any certainty are the important relationships we have with others, at least in the moment we are living. And maybe the love we feel for others and they for us. That is about it.

I live in the moment now. I lived in the moment throughout this day of Thanksgiving, Nov. 23, 2007. I truly enjoyed the precious time I shared with friends and family. I am truly grateful that I am now capable of experiencing these moments in a wonderfully positive way. I am a genuinely rich man for that.