Pathwalking 20
Sometimes this walking-your-own-path stuff can be tiring. You get footsore, like with any long walk or hike; and that’s a perfectly normal thing. When it comes to pathwalking, it may be yet another opportunity.
One aspect of Pathwalking is the goal at the end. But equally, if not more important, is what you encounter on the journey itself. When the journey makes you footsore, that doesn’t mean in any way you abandon the path. You just pause.
When I go for a hike, I seldom do so with any actual goal in mind. Sure, maybe at the end of the path there is a waterfall or a lake or some other natural beauty. But the purpose of the hike is to experience all that the path has to offer.
While hiking, I usually take my camera. I often find that along the path, something will catch my eye. A leaf, an odd-shaped tree trunk, the light reflecting off a stream…and I need to capture it. Sometimes that causes a new thought I was not seeking. A world evolves before my mind’s eye, a city from a story I was writing comes into focus. The light reflecting off that stream has made me recall an idea I had years ago, but never saw through.
When you trek through the woods, or up a mountain trail, there aren’t benches to sit on when you become footsore. You choose a downed tree, a boulder, a patch of grass, or some other similar spot where you can sit. And that place you choose will be filled with the sounds, the smells, and the sights native to it.
When you decide to continue your hike, the pause may have caused you to change the direction you were going. You find the need to ford a stream you hadn’t planned to cross because something on the other side caught your eye, or to head down that other trail because the song of an unfamiliar bird has piqued your curiosity…or you may even choose to go back the way you came. You have not finished taking the path, but how you continue it has been changed.
This concept of pathwalking is similar. Certainly, there is a goal or goals the path leads to. But as previously stated, the path is not singular…and neither is the goal. Sometimes when you pause to rest your feet along the journey, you may encounter the unexpected.
Several years ago, I started a business. The intent of that business was broad, unfocused, and, as such, pretty close to unattainable. It remained in existence, but rudderless.
As I began to actually walk a path of my own choosing, the business came back into focus for me. I had a number of unexpected experiences that redirected the intent, brought it into focus. And now I am doing it.
How I got onto this path was convoluted. It was a lot of twists and turns, unexpected encounters, false starts. I stood a long time at the crossroads between all possible paths, and for a very long time, just spun around and chose nothing.
Then I began creating these Pathwalking posts, sharing this concept with anyone who might seek, as I do, a life less ordinary. When presented with a possible crisis, I chose instead to see it for the opportunity that it was. I decided it was not enough to just share this idea…I had to put it to use.
Along the journey things have popped up I did not expect. People have come across my path who represent unplanned opportunities. And as I walk the path, I am often shown incredible things I would most likely never have noticed before.
There is risk. There is uncertainty. And there are days I am footsore, and when I stop to rest I question why I am doing this. But taking this chance, and walking a path I would choose of my own has made me feel happier, more content, and more in-tune with the forces of the Universe than I have felt in a very long time.
This is exciting. This is unusual. This is allowing me to discover so very many things I likely never would have if I had not chosen to heed my own idea, and start pathwalking. It is a work in progress, there are still good days and bad. But the journey has become tremendously exciting.
Does your journey excite you, too?
This is the twentieth entry in my series. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Thank you for joining me.
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