The Soul-making Journey

“In every tree there is a soul, in every man maybe.” T. Okawa

“At any meaningful turning point in life, we must face our deepest fears in order to grow. And typically a turning point can feel like the worst thing that could happen to us… We have to stop despite the fears of the stock market crashing and in spite of the common belief that everything must keep expanding, so that we must avoid all possibilities of a major descent.

And yet, we may have already reached that point where individual travel is being restricted for the benefit of all. Where instead of rushing about, flying about, we are being asked, not just to stop and hold in place, but in a way to turn inward. For we don’t know how long all the journeys of life must come to a stop. Not just that people have to cancel vacations. But pilgrimages to holy places become dangerous…

The real aim of any pilgrimage is to arrive at the place of the deep self and soul. And all those holy places outside us are at some level symbolic of the holy place inside ourselves that we are intended to find on this strange journey of life.” — Michael Meade

The world is facing a tidal wave of unknown proportions, a pandemic that could kill us or someone we love. We can’t travel or even go to work. We are told not to leave our domiciles except when we must. Whether we want to or not, we must…