3/4 of 2023 is behind us. I’ve taken a pause in the last few days to reflect on all of the work done this year, and the work still to come. It’s already been a wild and deep run and there are three more months of path-walking ahead until the sun clock turns over. This time to reflect and ground before approaching the fourth quarter has offered some insights into the nature of the path.
FINDING THE PATH
I’m sure many of us are familiar with the Chinese adage, “There are many paths to the top of the mountain.” The truth of this idea is the same today as it was 2,500 years ago. This world is full of mystery, possibility and uncertainty. It is up to us to choose which way we will turn inside the maze. Rarely, can anyone show us the way, because the way is within us. It must be walked in the dark, by faith. Go far enough and we are all sure to reach the only destination there is: remembrance of our nature.
Yet within the mystery of the labyrinth, we find guides, flame bearers, carriers of a candle which remind us how to keep the faith. These guides have less to do with telling us which way to turn, and more to do with helping us remember the blueprint that lives inside our bodies. Each of us knows the way beyond our ability to intellectualize it—no different than a migratory bird remembers exactly where it hatched, thousands of miles away.
One of the biggest hurdles we can face when confronting any challenge is that of simply beginning. How often is it that we know what to do, but do not do it? The next step is clear to us. It is aligned with our thinking, our feeling and our inner wisdom and yet we do not take that step. Why do we do this? Some would say, because these are the steps which force us to confront everything we are avoiding. In my preferred language, these are the steps which guide us into the wound.
The wound is how we find our path. The pain which echoes inside the labyrinthine halls of our bodies and minds is the doorway. Finding the faith to cross this threshold is the first initiation on the spiritual path of healing. It is something each of us must do in our own time. No one can push us from the diving board and force us to enter the deep waters of our personal underworld. We must call the path to us. Yet, there are always invitations. And the way of grace is to simply jump, knowing that you are in the safe witness of friends, mentors and the community of human beings all finding their own way up the mountain.
In service,
Jordan Mockingbird