You can wander with no destination, you are still on a journey.
The music analogy in that video with Alan Watts talking falls apart for me because I know how some composers actually write music.
Composers write in a form. Rondo, binary, ternary, sonata – they all have a structure and are pre-planned. Even modern composers and songwriters have some sort of loose structure or path or framework on which to display their creativity.
To me this is a very clear map, a very firm plan and ultimate destination, but it doesn’t stop the musician from playing it, learning something new about it and themselves each time they play. The really excellent musicians can interpret music we know very well in such a way that it takes us on a very different journey from the one the composer intended. Their skill and heart, their breath and intention get us to somewhere new and exciting, but the piece still finishes.
My job is to nurture you whilst you explore on your own journey, to be there when you wobble, to give you the safety to wobble a little more – I companion you as you travel.
For most people life, the passage of time, is experienced as a one way event, a journey from life to death, and around again if you are so inclined.
But who says you cant pause and enjoy, connect for a few moments of that time and wonder? Soak in the utter majesty of that breath, that hug, that birth, that posture – just be for a moment.
You make the rules. You get to throw the rules out of the window of a speeding train and cackle as they flutter away like so many birds who pecked and corralled you for so long. That’s on you.
You can journey to your edges and explore beyond them, stroke them, or back off them until you feel stronger. That is your choice, every moment. Being present to those choices is a daily practice of awareness, but once you start, ahh, its so worth it. Sometimes things happen that out of our control – we didn’t choose them, but we can always choose how we react to them. Sometimes that takes a little inner work, but again, it’s so worth it. That work gives you freedom.
This is your show. This is your LIFE. This is your JOURNEY. Your path is not fixed.
Let me say this again. Journey ≠ Predetermined Path
You get to CHOOSE.
So step up to that power and claim it. Revel in it. Roll in it. Dance with it. Play with it.
It’s all you. Your choice. Your journey. You make the map, but you can also choose to say “Fuck it”, chuck it in the bin and try something new.