While You Get to Where You’re Going

Sri Chinmoy once said, “Ours is a divine journey; therefore, this journey has neither a beginning nor an end... This journey has a goal, but it does not stop at any goal, for it has come to realise that today's goal is only the starting point of tomorrow's journey.” Whenever I am upset about something my mom always says to me, “Find something good about it; find something about it that you can take joy in.” Usually, this piece of advice only frustrates me more as I stew on what I think I deserve or how I believe I ought to be treated. I have often told her, “I don’t want you to tell me how I should be feeling. I just want you to listen to what I’m saying and agree with me.” More often than not, though, I find that when I am most frustrated that someone is not agreeing with my own thoughts or emotions, it is usually because they have advice worth heeding. At the end of May, I will have been out of college for a full year. In these past nine months, I have experienced time both begrudgingly drag on and simultaneously speed up. At times, I feel like it was just yesterday where I confidently walked across my graduation stage, ready to take on the world with open arms. Since that moment, I feel like no time at all has passed, as I try to frantically plan out the course of my life. Other times, that moment feels like it had taken place centuries ago, as I impatiently wait for the pieces of my life to fall into place. This first year since graduating college has been filled with unparalleled, harsh, worthwhile, and redeeming lessons and realities. My circumstances have not always or not quite nearly aligned with my expectations. I failed, I got back up, I followed my heart, I created, I imagined, and I dreamed again. Throughout the lowest valleys, the points of disappointment, the heartbreak and, likely, the excitement, the joy, and the accomplishments, I have been learning over and over again to take my mom’s advice- I have been learning to let go.Often, we find ourselves focused on the destination. Our circumstances do not meet our expectations. So, we tell ourselves that whenever we get to where we are going, we will be happy, fulfilled, that our souls will be satisfied, or that our lives will finally have meaning. We prize the end goal- a job everyone else covets, a perfect marriage, a complete family, an impressive degree, a magnificent home, an extravagant life. While we may accept that these goals of ours may not be easily handed to us, that we may have to work to achieve them, we are not always tolerant of any deviations on the road to obtaining our dreams. Somewhere along the way, we have convinced ourselves that the destination is more important than the roads and paths we take to get there. We forget about the value in getting to where we desire to be. But, when we become aware of our present circumstances and happenings, we begin to open our eyes to all we have to offer the world around us, despite where we think we should be or what we believe we should have achieved by now. Once we learn to let go of our expectations of our destinations, once we find joy amid the various bends and curves to our journey’s end, we will begin find value in our failed attempts, unmet expectations, unpredictable circumstances, harsh realities, and unachieved ambitions. When we open our eyes to wherever our feet are planted along our way to our self-defined success, we will embrace imperfection, we will be free of the weight of our own expectations, we will find the courage to surpass the limitations set before us, and we will become comfortable with resting in the “now.”In every circumstance, situation, lesson, and reality that teaches us to rejoice in our own unique journeys, we will become more enlightened of our own strength. We may, then, see more clearly the value in each step we take towards the destination of our dreams. We may find that there is not a single experience, disappointment, failure, nor any setback that is wasted along the journey in which we undoubtedly learn about our incomparable and invincible nature. When we begin to embrace our journey, we will discover that while we have so much to offer the world, we, just the same, have so much to offer whatever reality we find ourselves in and whatever circumstance we find ourselves amid. So, while you get to where you are going, pause, breathe, let go, look around, embrace the present, and rejoice in the person you are wherever you find yourself along the way.