A lot can be said for the humble journey. We make them every day; sometimes long, sometimes short; some are frequently made like a commute or journey into work, whilst others could be a spur of the moment walk in a lunch break. They are all still journeys however, and there is a lot to be gleaned from them.
How many times do you look up and all of a sudden, it’s gone from summer (OK, this year’s summer hasn’t given much to be desired or missed yet, but go with me on this) to winter and you didn’t even notice the leaves change on the trees? Or the winter snow could have cleared and you didn’t spot the fresh buds on the trees yet there’s an abundance of green everywhere? All too often, the details of life can pass us by, and our journeys can be the perfect time to spot the subtle changes and stay connected to the cycle of life.
It’s not just about physical journeys either. A lot of our experiences involve a starting point, an end point that we’re aiming to reach, and in between is a journey. It could be enrolling on a course and graduating at the end; that journey is hugely important. We do all our learning, meet amazing people, discover new things about ourselves and the way the world works. We wouldn’t dream of wishing it away and just wanting to jump from the day we get a student card to the day we can add our new qualification to our CV. Would we? Well I think it’s the same with many other things in life too.
We can think there’s a golden egg out there that when cracked open will contain happiness. That there’s a silver bullet that will make everything good and give that warm fuzzy contented feeling inside. But the truth of the matter is that is very unlikely. However that doesn’t mean we have to give up, because it’s not a case of saying this is a Holy Grail and we could never find it. Far from it.
I would suggest that instead, there is a golden goose who lays many eggs. Any one of those eggs could give us happiness, and they could be in many different places. We could take any one of a number of different paths, and what we find at the end could make us happy – but so could the journey itself. If we miss out on the experience of getting to that egg by being solidly focused on the end goal, we could lose out on enjoying lots of small Happys along the way.
The only reason our golden eggs could disappoint us is if we spend our time thinking, but what if that other egg was better? What if there’s another one out there that could make me even happier? Although I strongly agree with changing your situation if you are no longer happy, that doesn’t always mean running off back down the first path and trying to find a new one. Sometime the part of the situation that needs changing is the way you look at it. For example, that golden egg that first made you happy because of the pretty shiny shell… if that now looks dull and uninteresting to you, why not delve deeper and see what’s inside? Just looking from the outside can feel safe because you’re less involved, but if it turns out to be a bad egg, that goose is still laying!
Life, is truly what you make of it!