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“The miracle is not walking on the water; the miracle is walking on the earth,” said the teacher Thích Nhất Hanh. “The miracle is all around us as the awareness of life itself.”
I hear Joseph Campbell: “People are not looking for the meaning of life, they are looking for the feeling of being alive.”
As I look at Alex and Renias, it appears that in six hours of walking, of intense focus and vigilance, and with no food or water, they have not broken a sweat. It is a kind of energy I have witnessed in people who have merged “work,” “mission,” and “meaning.” These people don’t take holidays or need days off. They outwork everyone not from some kind of gritty determination, but from a place of pure pleasure.
The elation of returning to the track is hard to articulate. Dopamine floods the system. The break in the case! The clue that changes everything!
Suddenly, I feel an old friend who has walked with me for years arise. Each one of us has these friends; mine is called self-doubt. I have learned rather than to resist him, to invite him in, welcoming him as a teacher of humility. Together, we continue. The first track, and then the next first track.
You who have longed for and felt called to make a different world. You who have suffered the illnesses of society. You who have risen to the top and found it empty. You with a desire to serve. You who have felt called to nature and to the creatures of the earth. You are the tracker. We are now at an inflection point. We must leave the safety of the village and venture out onto the trail of something wild and uncertain and as yet undefined. We must live on that trail, propelled forward by a set of clues only you will recognize by the aliveness they bring out in you. You must teach yourself to
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Step off the superhighway of modern life and go quietly onto your own track. Go to a new trail where you can hear the whisper of your wild self in the echoes of the forest. Find the trail of something wild and dangerous and worthy of your fear and joy and focus. Live deeply on your own inner guidance. There is nothing more healing than finding your gifts and sharing them.
“What you seek is seeking you.”
Going forward, I need to daily “do what I know to do.” Not the rationale of fulfilling some role or image but the deeper knowing of the moment.
I remain deeply convinced that a person who tracks down an authentic life opens up possibilities for themselves, their family, and their larger community.
Remember to prepare for the call. Know the call when it comes by the fact that not doing it would feel profoundly wrong.
