Lost At All Times
There’s something to be said about being lost. There is a certain art to it that is difficult to master. An art of being aloof yet aware in the same instant. An art of delicately balancing freedom and fear.
Despite the fact that being lost is so universally graspable, it can mean so many different things… Lost in life, in thought, on the highway, in the city. Lost.
It may sound counter intuitive, but while being lost can be very frustrating and hard to understand, it is also an incredible learning experience. I can tell you right now, I have been lost most of my life. Oddly enough, I am happy to say that.
For most people, being lost has a bitter taste.
Remember that time your loved one passed away and you had no idea how you could live without them? Remember wandering from day to day with no sense of purpose? Trying to find a way to start your day as if it were the same as the last, as if they were still there…
No? Well, maybe you remember when your significant other left and you could not understand what to do with your life. Remember trying to go through the motions without them? Trying to flash back to what it was like before and being alone again…
Well, maybe you remember that time you visited a friend and you and took a wrong turn? Remember screaming bloody murder when you saw an additional 30 minutes added to the trip? An additional 30 minutes you did not have to waste…
We all do.
Learning to wade through the fear and despair of being lost is incredibly challenging. Learning to appreciate the darkness and transform it into a bright light of understanding… now that my friends, is an art.
What I am trying to say is you can’t let being lost force you to live mundanely. To embody a routine. To tow the line without ever seeing, hearing, smelling, breathing it all in. I’m reminded of something from one of my favorite books,
“I can’t stand it to think my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it.” — Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
When you lose a loved one, of course you fall into a dark place. You are challenged at every turn without that person in your life. However, over time you finally begin to learn what it was that they taught you when they were around.
You may learn to about humility, bravery and kindness. Like being dragged to the soup kitchen as a child to give unconditionally, to experience human empathy. Or when someone reminded you to never say goodbye, only see you later.
When your significant other leaves, it is easy to feel hopeless. Spending countless hours thinking about someone who is suddenly gone. How do you revert to what it was before without a pain? How do you begin to move forward?
It is only after someone you’ve loved so deeply leaves that you realize the blessings they placed upon you. The things you learned along the way and how it has improved you as a person. Learning to love regardless of circumstance, to live off of seeing someone else smile.
When you are late or lost in the car, it is outright maddening. How can you be excited being lost on a road trip when you know you are taking away time from your final destination?
Only when you have strayed from the beaten path to accidentally discover wanderlust, do you learn it is actually about the trip, not the destination. To find new paths unbeaten by the rest, to tow your own line…
These experiences are when you either discover or ignore the art of being lost.
When would you have learned about the mysteries life has to offer if you were constantly following in someone else’s footsteps. You never would have seen, heard, smelled and breathed it all in for yourself. Towing the line has already been done by millions before you and will be by millions after.
Being lost molds a sense of purpose into people yet few fully take advantage of that sensation. Remembering all of the bad of being lost is what makes being lost so good. It reminds you that the good is not only good, it’s goddamn great.
It reminds you of what is really important in life. Being humble enough to fully absorb an experience, regardless of the good, the bad or the ugly.
It reminds you that when it is your time to go, the ‘see you later’s will be worth it, no matter how much it causes others to become lost.
You can only hope they learn as you hopefully have, the art of being lost.
“The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.” — Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
