The Journey As Real Life

 

Can happiness ONLY be found when we arrive at our heart's destination?

I am always striving to have enough success to ensure that I have the financial capability to control my own creative destiny and to allow me the luxury to pursue my passions.

I have now spent far longer on the road from Here to There than I could have ever imagined. Sixty years after my adventure on this earth began, I’ve come to a realization. I’ve always controlled my own creative destiny, but not always its course. I simply didn’t have the common sense to realize it until now. Better late than never right?

The point is that I’ve learned that the essence of my journey is as important, maybe even more important, than arriving at my destination. In order for me to realize genuine happiness, I must learn to enjoy every moment, every step of the way. After all, the journey is really all that I’ll ever know. Day in and day out. The journey is real life.

The artist Georgia O’Keeffe came to the same conclusion in 1923. “I found myself saying to myself…I can’t live where I want to…I can’t go where I want to…I can’t do what I want to. I can’t even say what I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to…that seemed to be the only thing I could do that didn’t concern anybody but myself.”

I most certainly am not able to paint like Georgia O’Keeffe or find splendor in bare bones and desert sands as well as flowers, but I can slowly learn to follow her example, to carve out time for rewarding writing reveries that give me a glimpse of my real self. It’s during those idle hours that I find I am most abundant with my own potential.

This skill — the craft of taking the time to journey inside and care for ourselves and what we want — rarely comes naturally or easily. But I believe that with practice, with patience, with perseverance, it does come.