Pathfinder: Following The Stepping Stones To A More Contented Life

Lately — and believe me, it has come as much as a surprise to me as to anyone — I have been exploring the concept of spirituality and what it means to me. Now, as a characteristically logical, fact-driven late 20-something with two feet firmly planted on the ground, this might seem out of character… and indeed it is.

But like many things in my life lately, I have have felt compelled to do so.

You see, over time I’m becoming increasingly aware of a sense that I am finally on the right path in my life. How? Well things just seem easier. Good things keep happening, new opportunities keep popping up out of nowhere and just when I can’t see how things are going to turn out ok…they do, just like that!

It all started to change towards the end of last year when I made a major decision to quit my job, pack up my belongings and head to London for a few months to explore a new career pathway and see where it would lead me.

Since then, I’ve learned a lot about the value of trusting the ‘universe’ (or whatever it is you want to call it). I am by no means religious and so there’s no deity attached to this belief, I am just simply developing an understanding that I’m part of something larger than myself. Something lately that I am thinking more of as a ‘shared consciousness’.

And so, I’ve started reflecting a lot about what this somewhat unexpected spiritual journey feels like. Or maybe, more accurately, how it feels to experience.

Because ideally, what I want to be able to do, is to use this newfound peace of mind to help me make decisions that will continue to lead me on the right path, especially when something or someone in my life threatens to lead me off in absolutely the wrong direction.

So here’s what I imagine, exactly how I imagine it…

I am standing in darkness with the ‘universe’ only lighting a stepping stone or two in front of me at a time. Each time stepping stones are illuminated, I find I have to make a choice about whether I want to walk on them, towards more darkness and the unknown, before any further steps are revealed to me.

Part of that choice is whether I am willing to trust that indeed more steps will appear in front of me afterward, and that they will lead me in a direction that is right for me.

There are no hard facts to examine, no glimpse of what is ahead or what is to come if I take those steps, just a choice:

• Take the steps and walk on into the unknown
• Don’t take them

Sometimes, if we are not ready to progress ahead through the darkness, no further steps on the path are illuminated for a while.

When that happens, we are left standing there in contemplation.

For some, this is too much…the unknowns overwhelm them and they whip the torch out of their pockets, point it in a different direction and start heading that way.

They might fool themselves into thinking that, well, the torch was created by the universe (and from their experience is therefore much more reliable at shining light), so this pathway they’re shining it onto might indeed be the right one. But underneath that belief is fear. It clenches tight, in the pit of their stomach and makes their hand that’s gripping the torch shake, just slightly, so that what’s in front of them seems jerky and somehow less solid than it did just before.

Sometimes that pathway which their torch now illuminates, leads them back to the pathway they were meant to follow. It’s like the steps they’ve shone the light on themselves have taught them (through other challenges) what they needed to know to get to the place where they are more willing to stand and wait for the universe to illuminate the next steps for them.

Other times, they wildly steamroll down that torchlit path seeking answers & a destination…afraid, so afraid, of the dark that they find themselves running through it, not sure if they are running to or from something (or maybe themselves?). Either way it is exhausting and uncomfortable, probably more uncomfortable than if they’d just waited at that junction in the first place.

Conversely, those that chose to wait for what was next on the pathway, who kept the torch in their pocket and trusted that the waiting served its own purpose (self-reflection/growth/contemplation), have had a few more steps illuminated in front of them. And they’re walking on them, slowly, taking their time and reflecting on each one as they go; wondering what subsequent steps might look like or bring.

The steps they walk are sometimes uncomfortable. They are scratchy or sharp on their feet. They are sometimes feel so rocky and unstable that they wonder if there is another pathway out there in the darkness that would be easier or quicker or more enjoyable. In those moments of doubt, their hand reaches into their pocket to grasp the torch there and feel its weight — to know that it is there is a comfort, but they have the foresight to leave it where it lies.

Because those steps that become illuminated are those that are meant for them.

And though there is always darkness and quite often no visible pathway ahead, they find peace along it. They walk and walk and experience things, learn things and find that at times, they struggle with things. They are given the time to rest along the way — sometimes the steps ahead take longer to illuminate just for this purpose — but they find that these periods allow them to re-energise so they are never left too tired to walk on.

What they find along that illuminated path is wisdom, and within that wisdom, they are surprised to find comfort and contentment in both the darkness and the light.

They realise and appreciate that darkness and light need each other to exist…that there is a balance and synergy to their relationship, and that there is nothing to fear in either.

Because light will always lead their way, when they are ready to follow. And darkness’s purpose is not to scare them or blind them, but to offer a comforting embrace on the journey which absorbs their fears for as long as they choose to allow it.