The Way Teaches Us The Way January 18, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Mindfulness, Synchronicity & Mystery, Travel & Leisure.Tags: Destination, Journey, Lao-Tzu, Mindfulness, Taoism, Travel
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Don’s last post, Life’s Departures, reminded me of a favorite quote:
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” ~ Lao Tzu
Although we are often encouraged to plan ahead and be prepared (for any and every eventuality), there is much to be said for “winging it” or “flying by the seat of our pants.”
When we don’t know exactly where we are going, we don’t let an unwavering commitment to a pre-determined destination intrude on our enjoyment of the journey. We stop charging “full steam ahead” and learn to go with the flow as the future unfolds.
Plans flexible, we remain open to infinite possibilities, as they appear on the ever-changing horizon. We remain mindful and aware, seeing opportunities as they arise.
Focused on the NOW, we take time to explore delightful detours and chance encounters as the path unfolds before us. We pause to enjoy a sunset or smell the roses blooming.
We embrace uncertainty with joy. Our awareness of “all that is” expands. We step back from the tiller, allowing the winds of change to steer our sails.
And, all along the way, the way teaches us the way.
Aah . . . that’s better!
I’m glad you reminded me of Lao Tzu’s quote. After walking along the Camino last year I know that the journey begins when you take the first step… but after I came back home I allowed stress to trap me and in no time my head filled up with worry and noisy chatter – and so all the opportunities and chance encounters have simply passed by me.
Great post. Thanks Nancy.
Thanks, Rosie. Walking the Camino is a perfect example of the value of the JOURNEY itself, and the people we meet along the way. Not surprised that, once back home, stress stepped back into the picture. Our thoughts are prone to drowning out the present moment . . .
We must keep bringing ourselves back to THIS moment. And the next.
Such a good post Nancy and those words of Lao Tzu are wonderfully insightful. I think the sad thing is that people don’t easily embrace uncertainty and mystery. Our age is an extremely controlling one, but there are lots of positive signs of people wanting to embrace uncertainty. I think we’re just running out of steam. For too long we have been holding on too tight. Appreciate the pingback.
Yes! We are trained and socialized to “map out our lives” before we even know who we will become. We are encouraged to look forward to the future, using the past as a guide. As a result, we internalize the desire to avoid, rather than to embrace, uncertainty and mystery.
When we stop looking in the rearview mirror . . . when we stop trying to see beyond our headlights . . . we are able to see what is being offered HERE and NOW, the only place that happiness resides.
I love stepping off the path to look at stuff, Nancy. Life doesn’t always accommodate us when we make the choice to do that; but I feel sure it is the path to happiness.
At times, circumstance prevents us from meandering down a beckoning avenue. Other times, it’s habit that keeps us on the straight and narrow, far from far-flung and enticing vistas.
I’m a spontaneous person. Planning is good if you’re having a baby or moving into a home, but when it comes to traveling…just go! If someone said to me right now “Let’s go to England right now!” I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment.
Wow! That IS spontaneous, Irene. At the moment, I don’t even have a passport. What kind of traveler does that make me?
I think that Lao Tzu’s quote applies to our daily lives as well as our global travels. For example:
Writer A sets out to write a book. Instead of mapping everything out, he starts to write with no set plan. He allows the characters to “steer the ship.” Instead of becoming obsessed with arriving at a set destination, he enjoys the journey from HERE to THERE.
In contrast, Writer B decides to write a “bestseller.” Anything less than landing on the NY Times Bestseller list will not suffice. Caught up in his plans, he becomes intent on arriving at the finish line. He fails to enjoy the journey, becomes riddled with angst and self-doubt, and never finishes what he started.
It also applies to people who map our their baby’s future before the baby is walking, talking, or toilet-trained.
I’ve always been a “flying by the seat of my pants” person. But my daughter is always very organised and plans for everything. Before she left home our life was very interesting indeed! I taught her to relax a little and she taught me to plan a little. We are great match
That’s awesome, Dianne! I often make “loose plans” . . . steps leading from HERE to THERE. But, whenever I can along the way, I strive to RELAX and enjoy the ride (even if it means that I get THERE a little bit slower than someone else).
I suspect that Lao Tzu was a railway enthusiast – that quote is exactly how we think
That’s great. I can hear the conversation now:
RR Passenger: “So what’s the ETA?”
RR Ticket Agent: “Hmm . . . I really couldn’t say. We have no set plans. In fact, we’re not intent on arriving at all.”
RR Enthusiast: “Excellent. I’ll take TWO tickets . . . to anywhere she’s going (or not going)!”
I will be folowing up on this Nancy… From the Trainspotters perspective (yesterday was an example of flexi-travel
I’ll swing round and take a peek.
Flying by the seat of my pants, only way to go!
Wheeeee!!!
Trying trying trying
Yup . . . we must keep bringing ourselves back to the task.
Hey I like this. One of my heroes, Justin Stone always says tai chi chin teaches us tai chi chin. I didn’t get it for a long time.
Thanks, Tammy. Most things we learn (walking, riding a bike, tying our shoes, playing an instrument, meditating) are learned by doing . . . not by sitting on the sidelines watching others.
With tai chi we know we’ve found the “right balance” . . . when we have found the right balance.
A problem with “fixed plans” is that so many wonderful opportunities might be overlooked or missed…opportunities that might lead in other wonderful directions. Ahhh…the wonder of infinite possibilities.
Yes. Intent on X, our “closed mind” may not notice Y or Z . . . even if they’re shouting, “Pick me! Pick me!”
Haha! Great timing! I just had a long telephone conversation about that with R’s language therapist, who has a set plan in mind, while I feel she needs to meet R where she’s at and play it by ear, at least until it’s clear what pace she can handle.
It’s great to have a “game plan” . . . as long as we remain flexible enough to substitute one play for another when circumstances warrant it. Hope that R’s language therapist will meet R where she’s at and play it by ear.
Pretty hard to travel and enjoy when mind is having a flashback. Also, one must travel light otherwise, heavy burden to carry. Luggage and mind.
Yes. Pain and fear are heavy burdens . . . best to leave them by the side of the road.
Hello, again, my friend! Love the post. It is so true. It reminds me (here I go again), however this time not of a story, but of the thing that happens when you are on your way to a place you have never been. It takes forever to get there, but the journey back home is very fast, and it doesn’t seem like nearly as great a distance on the return as it did on the approach. BUT, if you didn’t worry about whether you could find the place you were going to, you would have enjoyed the whole trip a lot more, and not fretted your way through the journey, stopping to reference directions, reading every street sign instead of noticing the trees along the street, etc.
Now – on to other business. Please send me your snail mail address again. The good old PO just returned the Christmas card I sent you, having marked the envelope with the “no such address exists on planet Earth” stamp. I’m sure I copied it wrong, but as I have recently been told I am legally blind,it could be that what I typed on the envelope is what I “saw” in the e-mail!
I have also been wondering about your Tigger. Our Justin was diagnosed recently with diabetes. He has been a huge cat most of his life, evidently because of genetic factors, because he has been consistently almost UNDERfed because of our concern over his weight gain, in spite of how much or how little we gave him. When we got home after our Christmas trip, he suddenly looked to us very much thinner (although his behavior had not changed that we could see). Turns out he had lost 5 pounds since November – that’s 25% of his body weight in only three months! We are fortunate in that, contrary to Tigger, he is quite amenable to needles, and does not resent the twice a day shots we have to give him. He doesn’t especially enjoy the blood draws at the vet’s, but the shots – he doesn’t even notice! The needles are so small, and the amount of fluid injected under the skin is so little, he apparently doesn’t feel them at all! Whew! The vet says that it is possible that the diabetes will not last, because it was in November that he received a cortisone injection because of a bad reaction to a flea bite (he had picked it up at the vet when boarded there, we think, because he had never had a flea bite before). In any event, cortisone, in some predisposed cats, can kick start diabetes. If we pay attention to his glucose level for a while, keep him regulated with insulin and give his body time to recover, he might get past it. We will always have to watch him however. He seems healthy enough, fortunately. He just has more than twice the amount of of glucose in his blood than he should!
Oh well. . .life goes on! The world keeps turning toward the morning, so we will too. When I get your address, I’ll resend your card, and you might receive your Christmas greetings by Easter time!
Hope all is well with you and BFF. How’s your Mom?
Cheers!
PTC
Is your comment longer than the post? Yes. Yes, I believe it is. No matter. I set out with no set plans and enjoyed the meandering journey from THERE to HERE without undue regard for my ETA.
Glad that Justin is on the mend and is oblivious to the twice daily shots. Tigger is hanging in there. He lost 7 pounds in 9 months and is far too skinny but he still greets us at the door, wrestles with BFF, chases treats, and goes for his daily constitutional (on a leash) to inspect neighborhood happenings. He also enjoys NOT going back and forth to the vet every few weeks for blood draws.
Mom is OK. We had a long chat yesterday. Her memory is shot but she enjoys hearing stories from our shared past. The set up in Colorado is a good fit for her, but she wishes the weather was warmer. At least she’s not in Fargo North Dakota where it is expected to drop to 40 below zero this weekend. Yowsa! That’s cold enough to freeze a witch’s . . . anything!
I think we have been geared to that philosophy in recalling some of our most memorable holidays, where we simply set out and meandered. The journey WAS the holiday. On one three-week excursion, we went north to Mozambique, returned to South Africa through Kruger National Park, then wandered south to Cape Town, and came back up the Garden Route. Fuel prices were FAR more affordable in those days.
It’s lovely to set out for a walk-about . . . or a drive-about with lots of time to investigate and explore.
I fell in love with Mozambique when I heard Dylan sing about it:
I like to spend some time in Mozambique
The sunny sky is aqua blue
And all the couples dancing cheek to cheek
It’s very nice to stay a week or two
And fall in love just me and you.
There’s a lot of pretty girls in Mozambique
And plenty time for good romance
And everybody likes to stop and speak
To give the special one you seek a chance
Or maybe say hello with just a glance.
Lying next to her by the ocean
Reaching out and touching her hand
Whispering your secret emotion
Magic in a magical land.
And when it’s time for leaving Mozambique
To say goodbye to sand and sea
You turn around to take a final peek
And you see why it’s so unique to be
Among the lovely people living free
Upon the beach of sunny Mozambique.
If you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t get there from here. By the way, to “wing” something also means to wound it.
To paraphrase the Cheshire Cat:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”
“What do you mean by “there”?
“There” is anywhere. It’s the somewhere we reach . . . even when we don’t know where we’re going. It’s the milestones and markers we pass along the way. It’s the sum of the adventures we experience on our journey from HERE to THERE.
I enjoyed Lao Tzu’s words and your post. Would have been great if I had known this way of thinking and living when I was younger, it would have saved me much angst. Now I am older and wiser so pay better attention these days.
Same here! There’s quite a bit I know now that I didn’t know then . . .
[...] fellow blogger Nancy posted The Way Teaches Us The Way, she quoted Lao Tzu statement – “A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on [...]
Fabulous post, Martin! And perfect sum up:
Flexibility helps you to handle all the little issues that derail those who aren’t ready to bend with the wind. Now perhaps that’s what Lao Tzu was getting at – the need to bend with the wind when travelling either actually or metaphorically.
I like to at least know where I’m going, but leave the plans loose when I get there. I do have ideas of what I want to do when I go, but also leave free time so we can check something out that we see along the way. I love it when there’s enough time to take an unfamiliar road just because it’s there.
That’s exactly my view, Janna. I want to have a destination in mind . . . with enough flexibility to stop and explore anything that excites my interest along the way.
“We embrace uncertainty with joy” – I wouldn’t have agreed with this a few years ago but do now. Life’s a funny old thing.
Imagine how dull life would be if we never experienced a shift in our perspective. Viva la change!
Moving from one way of doing things to another requires a transitional period as you let go of the old and embrace the new. Transition is the middle ground required for evolution to occur. It’s the place between where you were and where you are going. Quite often, this middle ground feels unstable and stressful. Your old ways of living don’t work any more, but new ways of living aren’t in place just yet. Tiredness, confusion about who you are, and uncertainty about where your life is going are among the many emotions that can be experienced. You may stumble along with unsure footing wondering if you will ever feel confident again.
Yes . . . the transit through transitions is challenging. The old is not working and the new is not familiar enough to feel like home.