Life is a journey, not a destination!
To be a human being, is to be on a journey.
That is how the biblical story on Abraham begins, when he first heard the Hebrew words - “Lech Lecha”- "לך לך"
The command was to leave where he was, and travel to the “land “ he will be shown.
We are the people who travel. We are the people who do not stand still.
We are the people for whom time itself is a journey throughout life’s “wilderness” in search of the “Promised Land” - our particular calling.
In life, there are journeys and encampments.
Without the encampments, we suffer chaos and burnout.
Without the journey, we do not grow nor advance.
Yet, life is about growth and changes.
There is no way to avoid challenges and shifts.
We should never stand still.
Instead we should constantly set for ourselves new challenges that take us out of our comfort zone, so we keep flourish.
“Love and Work are the cornerstones to our humanness” declared Freud.
Freud seared into society's collective consciousness, that humankind’s mental health is manifested through, and can be distilled into 2 major
capacities: The capacity for- Love and for Work.
In my humble opinion Freud omitted a third primal capacity, pivotal to one's degree of functioning and satisfaction in life - the one to journey.
When we venture out into the world, we each search for our identity to find our own way.
For each of us there are milestones throughout our life’s journey. We each require changes on the direction of our course, while taking turns to new unknown destinations.
Self imposed or forced walking on new paths, hiking the roads less traveled, and pioneering to unfamiliar lands, is the voyage of experiencing beyond our safe encored shores.
Traveling requires courage.
Daring to wonder and explore, also gratify our innate curiosity and testify to our ability to embrace the scope of life and the magical gifts it offers.
No one can tell you where to go.
The most important decision we can make in life is to choose where we want to go, and where we want eventually to be.
One must have a sense of destiny and destination to decide where to go.
Seeing life as a call, a summon, a vocation, will get one there.
However seeing life as an accident, a random happening with no ultimate meaning whatsoever, will leave one directionless.
One will not get there, and most likely, one will get lost.
A sense of mission gives one the strength to do remarkable things.
The people who change the world are those who believe that life has a purpose, a direction, a destiny.
They know where they want to go and what they want to achieve.
The tale in Genesis begins with the “Garden of Eden” from which humankind was banished, and sentenced as a consequence, to grapple with existential tasks.
In addition to “multiply and labor for bread”, mankind was fated to
“wonder the land” .
The Human compulsion to perpetually WONDER is the First not third drive, built into our existential condition's hard-drive.
It is that drive, which has compelled and aroused earthling’s yearning to be on the move, cruising the land, in perpetual search, of both, physical and spiritual bliss, back to, ever imaginary “garden of Eden”.
The real voyage of discovery is about delving to one-self, and seeing near and far "lands" with open eyes. To begin a journey to the unknown, knowing that there will be hazards along the way, requires the courage to take risks.
Yet, with given strength and when we align our courage with innate curiosity, and with love, we strive.
If we walk fast we go alone, if we want to go far we go together.
Even when we are running away, from our fathers, or into ourselves, we in fact are continuing our fathers’ journey. Much of what we are is because of what they were.
Abraham had actually continued a passage his father inspired, and was encouraged to reach farther, thereby, later, showing the way to Isaac and Jacob, his descendants, who charted and curved their own way and destination.
That was Abraham’s legacy.
The pioneer forefather of the 3 major monotheistic religions, along with his wife Sarah, are remembered for their boldest departure:
“Going out from their own land, their own birth-place and their own father’s house to wander in the land” .
A forceful “voice” instructed Abraham “LEC-LECHA “- off you go, and so he did, reaching far away destinations, encountering revelations, establishing a new religion, and a chain of offspring, while being on motion.
This principle of “Walk on ahead”, the idea that we are destined to be pioneers, thus need to be both creative, take risks and prepare to spend a long time "wandering the wilderness”, is a unique human condition, emphasizing the high value of exploring, of reaching far, of moving a head....
Off you go!