I was thinking about my path through life, how worrying about it occupied a lot of my time and energy, and how this worry was essentially the catalyst that got me to leave my job and take so much time out to think about stuff that I’ve never really paid attention to before.  In the end, I questioned just exactly how much about my path going forward I needed to know and I ended up writing a little story to myself.  It went like this.

Two men in a jungle

There’s two men in a jungle, one is an explorer and the other a sage.  The explorer is using a big machete to hack his way through the vegetation as he journeys through the jungle exploring its depths.  One day he looks behind and notices the path that leads directly to where he is and he suddenly gets confused.

“Look, there is a path we have been travelling!” he cries out.  “I can clearly see the path behind me, but I cannot see it in front.”  The wise man simply looks at him, with his almost permanent curious look upon his face.  “See, it follows exactly where we have been, it is obviously the path we are supposed to be travelling, but I cannot see where it goes next.”  Suddenly he was gripped by fear.

“I cannot see the way forward,” he quivers.  “What if we take a wrong turning and fall off the right path?”  He stops and looks around desperately seeking for some sign to show which way the path is hiding.  He knows that if he takes it, he will be able to check it is correct by looking back, but the fear of getting it wrong has his frozen in terror.

“My friend,” says the wise man.  “You have it the wrong way round.  You do not follow the path, the path follows you.  That is why it is always behind you.”

“But how do I know which way to go?” asked the explorer.

“Look to create a path that makes your heart happy.  Perhaps you will create a path that will help others to find their way through the jungle, to water or open land.  You’ll know when you get there, and until then the most important thing is to keep going.”

And with that the explorer picked up his machete and they marched on.

Want to see more? Try one of these posts:

• A dread fear of moving backwards
• I don’t need to know what’s coming, just that I’m not screwing everything up