On The Road Again

Have you, like Willie, been itching to ‘get on the road again?’ Is the uncertainty, at best, and terror, at worst enough to make you press petal to motivational-metal and roar off toward new horizons? Is the inner emotional current growing such an insistently high decibel that you feel something within about to give way…the old brick and mortar cracking? Perhaps the edges of consciousness hear the resonance of Rumi’s dictate, “Seek the path that demands your whole being. ”

This is an admirable directive at any time, but as life grows precious and precarious; precious because of passing time, and precarious from greater reluctance to risk, we cannot postpone this rough road. Despite it being steep and arduous, we are on the road again because most of us postponed it as long as we could. We chose the seduction of safety, or like Willie, we made music with our friends. We allowed turmoil to waylay intention, and wept when fear obliterated courage.

The road of wholeness rises into the mountains, toward unknown destinations. It requires dreams, and faith to keep it going through steep, and twisty terrain. I am struggling with this road because I have not dreamed for too long, nor have I allowed the delicacy of fate and free will to hang in the balance. I have not wished upon the Moon, nor thrown coins in a fountain. If I cannot dream, or believe in my wishes, I cannot seek the path of my ‘whole being, ’ for the mystery of faith and fate stand side by side to the pragmatic good soldier. The voice of the dreamer opens the factual researcher to the unknown. The whole being contains and balances the visible, and invisible in equal measure.

Becoming whole is to become efficient in what we are deficient. It is to learn what we don’t understand. It is to assimilate another’s wisdom. This is what partnering brings. It is for these reasons we choose someone who offers what we do not have. They fill our empty places. They heal and mend. They drive us crazy. We learn. We assimilate and grow conscious. We shore up so we may travel onward. With fortune, we become who we always hoped we’d be.