Learning from Forrest's grandfather.

We're always on some path. Every breath is another step forward, right? Yet we're so focused on where we're going, or where we want to be. I'm beginning to see that the travelling is more important than the arrival, and that seeking inward is more rewarding than seeking outward.

This is pilgrimage.
Journeying not to, but with.
Destination: me.

I'm reading a wonderful children's book, The Education of Little Tree; a true story by Forrest Carter, who was raised by his Cherokee (Native American) grandparents, and there is a lot in that book to inspire me. The grandfather - what a grand grandfather he must have been. I'm awed by the wisdom of his spirituality, I'm humbled by the depth in the simplicity of his ways.

Afterthought: why must the original inhabitants of that continent be called "Native" Americans? Why aren't they called Americans, and the others called Immigrant Americans? They were there from the first. Every one else arrived.

Yoo- hoo.

We have so much to learn, so much to RE-learn. Gym, diets, doctors, spas, salons .. our bodies get the works, but our minds and spirits are so often neglected. I've always thought of psychotherapy, counseling, support groups, workshops etc., anything to do with self development, as gym for the mind and the soul.

The sky and roof called.
I took my soul for a walk.
Do you exercise?

Here, the general consensus is that if it's in the mind, then it's "just" in the mind: it's unmentionable. Where is the sense of self? Lost in a mire of martyrdom and codependency. Sometimes I just want to grab this nation by the shoulders and give her a good shake. Wake up!