A path leads to a destination, right? If I get on the path it’s so that I will eventually reach a place. Like Nirvana or Heaven or a peace-filled mind and heart. Last night my friend said, “I just want to get through all of this and finish.” She, and most people I know, want to get to a place that the great preacher, Prince, described as “A world of never-ending happiness, you can always see the sun, day or night.”
I’ve been on this path for nearly 2 decades I can tell you, there is no destination. There is no there to be. In the first 5 years, I discovered that I was responsible for conflicts in my relationships. I wanted peace so I tried to shed negative traits through prayer, forgiveness, and practice. Tada! Presto! I’m cured.
Until year 12, when I was planning my wedding. Even though I wasn’t a bridezilla, I was self-focused. Through this process, I discovered another layer of unmet expectations and long-held resentment. My mentor redirected my crazy obsession over timelines to the true cause of my discontent. Well hell. Another layer of crud fell away.
During the pandemic and its aftermath my world stood still as my son recovered from a broken mind and I recovered from a broken heart and left arm. My relationship with the Divine deepened and changed. I learned about true humility and my need for connection.
Now I’m coming up on year 18 and am realizing that there is always more. There is always more to uncover about childhood wounds, automatic coping mechanisms, character flaws – all the ways that we keep ourselves separated from one another and ultimately from ourselves.
When we judge others for their humanity, we are separated.
When we slip into the mire of self-pity, we are separated.
When we self-righteously proclaim our worldview and the right one, we are separated.
The spiritual path is not a theory, it’s a way of life. It is through our connection with one another and the Divine that we can move closer to Prince’s “world of never-ending happiness,” or if you prefer, “heaven on earth.”
The path is here for all seekers. Join those of us who wish to shed old behaviors, inaccurate patterns of thinking, and false beliefs along the way. In the words of 13th-century Sufi poet, Rumi,
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.”
Heather Dellapi 