Into the Wilderness
As the year draws to a close, I wish you good fortune and a memorable journey
The end of the year, like the start, is truly arbitrary. It is just another day, another time.
Yet, the end is symbolic.
Like Savasana in a yoga practice, or the moment that you kneel at the conclusion of a martial arts class, the end of the year is part of the whole.
It is a time for absorbing the experience that you embarked on. It washes over you. It invites you to sit in quiet contemplation.
It is a moment to ask many things.
How am I? How am I really?
What am I proud of?
Where do I have opportunities for further learning and growth?
And so on.
INTO THE WILDERNESS
This will be my last post of the year. I’ll be taking a long road trip down the California coastline and east towards the mountains.
Why? Why such a trip?
Because it feels right. It feels necessary.
The past two years were the most trying of my life, and every part of me — mind, body and soul — is asking for time.
Time to heal.
Time to rest.
To read. And write. And dream.
The end of the year brings winter (in the Northern hemisphere), and with winter comes the darkness.
I find that the darkest of my days have shed the brightest light on who I am.
As Mike McDaniel, the head coach of the Miami Dolphins football team puts it, adversity is an opportunity.
Your darkest hour can also be the finest.
The challenges and tests that life throws your way can galvanize you towards bringing forth your best self.
For me, I am digging as deep as I have ever had to dig.
And I welcome the challenge.
With open arms, I embrace the opportunity to rise to the occasion.
And now I go into the wilderness.
In the quiet of the mountains, I hope to find peace in my soul.
In the savage places that lie beyond the civil and orderly, I hope to reconnect with my raw and unpolluted nature.
The wild is calling. And I am ready to listen.
How will you end your year?
Will you go to the woods because you wish to live deliberately?
Will you show compassion towards others when none is afforded to you?
Will you explore the deepest, darkest areas of your soul in order to heal?
The year will come to an end. With or without your participation, time will turn the page and begin again.
How will you end it?
I will leave you with a final thought.
In Vikings, a show from the History Channel, one viking asks another: what do you want to achieve?
The other’s response encapsulates the entire program:
“I just want to live. I want to live with the greatest intensity. I want to feel every moment of my life. As long as it lasts. I want to be more than just a life.”
-Halfdan the Black
Live these final days with the greatest intensity.
I wish you good fortune and a healthy, memorable end to the year.