The journey is the destination

This post may not make a lick of sense. Forgive me, but these thoughts have rambled through my head a lot at the last moments of the day recently so I gather I should try to organize them here. Also, reading my friend’s blogs, I saw a couple of posts which resonated along the lines of my Deep Thoughts.

The Journey is the Destination

I think this may be my Life Motto. Well, I suppose in the spirit of that statement it should not be my ONLY one since each day may bring experiences which bring different messages. Classic ones like All You Need Is Love, and Live in the Moment, and Pay It Forward etc etc. But, for this particular time in my life – and perhaps in the lives of those closest to me – I feel like recognizing that Life is a Journey, not a Destination is perhaps a very critical truth. So many people I know are so focused on goals and life lists of things they want to accomplish. Heck, I’ve been there too! But to what end? Sure, it’s great to have those, but do we wend up putting too much pressure on ourselves to reach them? Do we miss out on other opportunities which could have been even more surprisingly rewarding? Once we do cross those items off, do we come up with new ones? Do we feel we have failed if we are unable to complete something? Is that really what life is about? How many people do you know who say something along the lines of “Once x happens, then I will be happy.” Why? Why can’t you be happy NOW? So many too, put pressure on themselves to live a life that Other People approve of. You know, that we must all be married (hetero of course), with 2.5 kids, a dog and a house in the suburb etc etc. Now, most everyone I know will reject that version of normal, yet in lots of little ways still react to things in their life wondering What Others Will Think. (Who are these Others and who put them on the pedestal passing judgment on everyone anyway? And how the hell can I get up there and be one of them? :-))

I think that every day that we wake up breathing (!!) we have reached a destination. However, I am not saying that we have to Make the Most of Every Day (another common motto), that again puts too much pressure on us. We just need to be engaged and connected to whatever we happen to be doing that day. I spent a lot of time in my youth and into my 30s “inside my own head” as someone said recently. Daydreaming or just disconnected and lost in my own thoughts about how things Should Be vs Reality. Since I have come out of that internal fog, I had an initial push to Be All I Could Be :-> I think though that I have recently pulled back from that and feel more appreciation for the day to day routines of this life. I’ve loved the zany schedule of DS2’s sports teams, and I will also love the peace of summer. The thing is, I just love the journey.