What is a journey?  How much do you plan? For this journey, we just went for it…

I can often use some time away to clear my head. It rarely fails to work. Around here, it’s not too difficult to drive away from the masses. That’s how I try to live, on the borders, the edges… so that I can get away when I want.

So what is a journey….?

Could transformation have something to do with it? How about the fact that on a journey, we often don’t realize where it is that we’ll end up! Perhaps we have some known elements: like, “I know where I’ll end up, but I don’t know how I’ll get there; or I know how, but I don’t know where; or, maybe I don’t know just when it is that I’ll arrive, but I’ve got all the other elements!” Rarely do we have all the elements.

On a journey, thoughts are just thoughts, extra things… we can let them go at any spot we choose. Everything is about Direction in movement.

How about here? Leaving deposits? In the beginning? Wait–> the annoying thoughts aren’t that annoying, just extraneous. I probably didn’t even realize then that leaving them behind here, was an option. But, it wasn’t ready yet. The ‘thing’ I was carrying hadn’t crystalized.

Realizing that we are headed into the mist, the journey is far more interesting; I decide to take ‘my stuff’ with me. The mist sort of drops and collects in the valleys, and it seems to move very quickly, as we were later to discover.

We think we know the destination when we start out – sometimes, as a strategy – we make that destination nebulous, though… like, “I’ll start out West, and go until I reach the ocean.” If our target is blurry, we think maybe we’ll be more likely to “get in the ballpark.” Fortunately, for the journey to be effective, rarely is it necessary to have a specific destination in mind, but we could just pick “something” so we get started.The important thing is that we need to be ‘ripe’ for the journey, like a fruit, we are ready to ‘fall to the earth.’

I’m reminded of a film I watched recently called, “Tracks,” where one woman wants desperately to just be alone, only to realize that ‘alone’ is all she’s ever known and felt, except with animals. Few of us, as with the Alchemist ,will ever realize the dreams within us; especially if we do not grab them, and listen to them. What are they? What is this nagging desire to put it into words all about, the ineffable?  What is this nag that’s become anger? Pain. Wait, it’s not anger yet, it’s only pain. LOTS of PAIN. Energy without a story is only charged energy. So, who needs a story? A-hah! The one who wants to learn from pain.

At the moment, I don’t know, as we can’t even see anything really clearly. This is the dyke that leads to the island. At moments, I can feel the cold mist sit on my chest and make it difficult for me to breathe. And asthma, and all the years… of being limited. stuck. held back by my own reactions to the environment, my body being ‘unhappy’ while my mind is excited, ready.

There are some beautiful distractions…those precious distractions, they keep the legs moving, the mind open. All is well…pain isn’t everything…

So, in reality, in the journey, there’s a bigger factor at play; it’s the interplay, perhaps, of the elements of the journey, including the weather. Weather always has a mood. But, you don’t always have to claim it as your own. Unless, of course, there’s a message there for you. There definitely was a message there for me, about my pain, and about what consistently eludes me.

We felt very fortunate that we didn’t choose to go boating that day. We laughed about how funny (or not) it would be, if we were out on the water and rowing in ONE direction and hoping for a shoreline. Mist has the potential to make two people more confused than one, can’t it? What about when the land is totally open to you, and you have all the choices in the world… except you don’t see the whole road, just the hint of a road?

I knew I was headed for the Labyrinth, and talking about it was a distraction from finding it. My body knew exactly where it was.  Why? Because it was carrying charged energy.

Through the trees, along the shoreline, my excitement grew. I was a child again. I was now borrowing my husband’s broken camera..phone, and completely captivated by capturing the images – feeling the mist on my face – engaging with the water droplets.

By this point, I was no longer held back by my back pain, nor the imagery, I was completely immersed in it. I was called, and I was dancing my way merrily through what felt like was actually a portal into the British Isles. I was back in time again, some other place, I lived many times before and where my husband and I first connected, as we both keep ‘receiving.’

After the spider-leg tree, I took a B-line into the woods and led us both directly to it. I led us to the Labyrinth that had been nearly overgrown, it was difficult to see – but ‘seeing’ was not my knowing. Only flowing was my knowing…

There’s always a special tree. And, this was it for me, directly above the labyrinth, opposite the gate. It stood tall to me, after my ceremonial walk. The walk we’ve walked so many times, but here, for the first time.

~ We are timeless. I speak and I am spoken to ~

Any way the journeyer arrives has less to do with appearances than the way the journeyer has changed inside. How does the journeyer look/feel/experience the change? A new found lightness of being? Or, could the journeyer have gained something, something valuable – a serious, grave truth, or understanding; a mental seed deposited from heaven, perhaps. You know, maybe even a present to unwrap the next time you dream… Perhaps even a key, or the entry point…to all other places.

We’ll have to see, for me, as each journey tells a similar story for the one who has written it. The “higher-Self” is intimately connected to all the ages that one has ever lived. God is everywhere, even in pain, in darkness. It is only with compassion that we listen to all the messages, and discern which ones apply to us, and which ones are not for us.

May you always have what you need… when you journey ❤