DIY Soulscaping

“If the path before you is clear,

you’re probably on someone else’s.” – Joseph Campbell

Quelle dragola! Seriously.

There are so many cleanly groomed, cleverly named trails to go down.

From Thrill Seeker Pass to Imperial Express to Deliverance, from Git-a-long Road to Enchanted Forest… The options are nearly endless– a trail for every conceivable mindset.

Why would any overworked, leisure-loving human try to forge their own?

Isn’t it kind of like reinventing the wheel? Doesn’t it make more sense to spend your time pulling weeds, getting a manicure, saving endangered species or reconsidering your Sauvignon Blanc selection?

After all, there is only so much time in life.

Absolutely. Amen and alleluia.

Except, of course, for one tiny little detail. It doesn’t work. Sure, you can sign on for any trail you want but it will always fall short one way or another. Plus, the ‘you’ you carve it out for changes too, SO it isn’t even a one-time event.

Oh, for the Pete’s sake, as our son Leo says.

But, in the end, the DIY option is a kickass blessing.

This means there are options. You never have to feel like there’s no space or place or grace for who you are­– your true you self.

It’s fun to play around with different trails. It would be too tiring to always being carving out another pitch-perfect custom path.

And, the playing around turns out to be excellent research for what you will ultimately create. Sort of like a Pinterest board when you’re building a house.

Ideas come from everywhere.

And the process of exploration and experimentation is fun. But, eventually, you have to stop collecting information and begin the challenging process of sorting, disgarding and synthesizing.

For people who don’t really believe in either-or options so much as both-and-all this can be frustrating, irritating and humbling.

Trade-offs are a bitch.

And to further complicate matters often the very things you have to let go of that you don’t want to end up being the losses without which you could never have been empowered to take flight.

Sort of like a caterpillar.

The incredibly arduous process of breaking free of the very cocoon that protects it seems COMPLETELY counterintuitive.

And yet, the caterpillar knows.

It knows that this is what it must do in order to transform into its next stage. It must let go of its land legs in order to fly.

Otherwise it dies inside the very home that protects it.

And so do we. In small ways.

In ways that compromise our ability to recognize ourselves. In ways we can’t quantify but most certainly feel as we try to fall asleep at night.

Happy trail-blazing.