No Planned Journey
"A planned journey is an oxymoron." So says
Terry Hershey in the New Morning show on
Beginnings
and Endings. For the longest time, I didn't know what an oxymoron was; I had
to look it up in the dictionary: "a combination of contradictory or incongruous
words." I get it now. Just like it says in that other folk saying, "It's about
the journey, not the destination," what's important is what you meet with
curiousity and love and compassion and kindness as you go through your life
moment by moment. And "Nobody promised you a rose garden" either.
I get
a little grouchy sometimes when wisdom sayings and well-meaning friends and even
spiritual teachers advise me that life is all about beginnings and endings. At
my age (in my 60s), you'd think I'd be done with beginnings and not quite due
for endings. But that's not life. That's an expectation or a dream.
The
people in today's show surely discovered that—jazz musician
Henry
Butler, who lost his home and most of his belongings in Hurricane Katrina,
and
Linda Hunt, whose beloved daughter was killed in a bus
accident. Both found ways to carry on and keep giving to the world around them.
And how about
Olga Bloom! She's living proof that elders are some of the
best mentors of how to begin things. Her inspiration to start the Bargemusic
program came at the end of her own long career as a working musician in New
York's theaters and studios. She thought of it because she had seen a lot of
talent that needed another place for its expression. She did not have the
information or the experience to come up with this idea when she was younger.
So, yes, I do get it. I get it that I can't even plan what next month
will bring, let alone next year. My journey is just happening. And as
Terry says, surprises are good. It's all good.