parallax

Destination – VJs Weekly Challenge

Photo: After Kings Canyon, the road out to the West MacDonnell Ranges stretches out.

There’s an old Sufi aphorism or proverb where a stable master goes to town for his master, only to be met by the figure of death at the markets “Tomorrow we meet and I will take you.” The man rides home and asks his master for a team of horses that he might ride to the ends of the realm. His request is granted. And he furiously rides to the end of the realm, and as he enters the markets, Death steps out, and says: “I told you I’d meet you today!” There are a number of these stories, some embellished, or like this one – my paraphrase, and from different traditions. But the point is made, It’s not the destination that matters. You can go to the corners of the earth and yet you are still you, and life goes on, it’s the journey that matters and facing oneself.

It’s The Journey That Matters

We never really arrive,
and the destination is never the destination
we think it is,
or, at the very least,
the landscape of everything is not what we expected,
only the people and places along the way,
help us truly arrive at ourselves with understanding.
It’s the journey that matters,
the journey to me,
with standard deviations,
interruptions,
rabbit holes and tea parties,
haring about,
climbing,
exploring,
crying and laughing,
loving and not loving,
skipping along,
grief or whimsey,
arriving and departing,
sometimes too soon.
Destinations can only be seen
through the eyes
of lived experiences,
as constantly never arriving,
and yet always arriving,
as we embrace the journey
in all its unplanned mayhem.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com