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Come meander with me on the pathless path of the Heart
in these anecdotal,
sometimes inspiring, sometimes personal meanderings of the Heart's opening in the every-day-ness of life...

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

An Expotition...

Pooh Bear and I went on an Expotition in the surrounding neighborhood last Thursday – our version of the 100 Acre Wood.  At my suggestion we went down a side street we had never been down before.  I was sure that there was a path that cut across a “power line right of way” back to our street, as I had seen the other end of the path from our street several times.  We kept walking down a long hill, following the curves in what seemed like a much longer way than the length of our own street just a block away.  We eventually found the path that cut through (yellow dotted line on map below), but it seemed to be a part of someone’s property that had a gate that was closed.  Neither one of us being the risk-taker type, Pooh and I decided to just keep going –  even though we had no idea where it would take us.
It was getting dark. Dogs were barking at us - strangers in this neck of the woods.  And we kept running into dead ends and cul-de-sacs.  We could see where we needed to be, but we couldn’t get there from where we were.  There was no path, no way through.  So we kept going and going and going, like an Expotition to nowhere.  Eventually we sighted a familiar main road.  We walked along the shoulder in rush hour traffic after dark – until we got to a large open field that we knew was just down the street from our house.  Once again I had seen that there was a path from our side of the field – that *appeared* to cut across the field.  But now that we were on the other side of the field we couldn’t find the path…  Okay, so this is becoming a theme here, don’t you think!

By this time I’m running on empty, stepping in gopher holes, and Pooh Bear is way ahead trying to find the way in the dark with only the remnants of light from the sunset.  We came to a deep ravine right in the middle of the field that spanned the entire width of the field.  There was no way across.  Ooops.  Very strange, I could have sworn I saw a path that went all the way the length of the field out to the main street.  I had not seen a deep ravine.  So we followed along the edge at the top of the ravine, hoping to find its end so we could get around it.  But the gaping hole didn’t end, until we got to a parking lot at the edge of the field.  We had to go through the parking lot and re-enter the field on the other side of the ravine where we *finally* found a way that would lead us home, which was not necessarily "the path" that we *thought* would take us there.  Phew.  Now *that* was an expotition.  It was probably about 2 miles, and about an hour’s brisk walk.

Upon reflection I found the whole journey an interesting life metaphor that we kept running into dead ends and cul-de-sacs, unable to get where we needed to go; not really knowing where we were going, unable to find a path that would take us home.  Everyday life reflecting an internal perception of “reality…”
 Just two days before I had awoken with the sense of needing to “leave the spiritual path behind” (also a recurring theme), although it was not clear to me what that meant exactly, and still isn’t, but change is in the air - again. J  It is the sense of “endings,” the sense of giving up the *trying*, the*striving* to find the right way, to stop *pursuing* the path; to just stop - to just *live* and not always try to *get* somewhere.  Pooh Bear has even commented that he felt I was trying too hard to find my way, efforting. And when I asked him why I was not getting the clarity and insight that seem to come to him so easily, he said – “because I’m not *trying*.”  Oooo – wise bear.  They just come to him because he stays open to life, without agenda, without the expectation of finding anything.  But as a consequence of my *trying* so hard to find the right path, the path has become illusive, and almost emotionally torturous to travel.  So I was not totally surprised when our little expotition ended up feeling a lot like my “spiritual path.”
 Recently I mentioned to a fellow blogger that I felt like I have been running on a “spiritual treadmill” going nowhere; still running on the surface of life.  That even after 30 years of being on a “spiritual path” I was still living on the surface of life, aware of a deeper Reality – a vast spacious background Presence in which all of life exists – but still focused mainly on the surface; lamenting that even “spirituality,” like religion, had become just another construct in the matrix. 

So it seems it’s time to get off the treadmill and leave the surface path behind, head deeper Into The Forest and Plumbthe Depths, tasting the sweet honey in the adventure of Being, and experience the current of Being that runs deeply through the internal pathways.


“Why search for anything when the very fabric of experience is
the path,
the unfolding of everyday experience.
Stop trying to awaken,
stop meddling with your experience
long enough to notice what is.
The key is within.”

Rob Matthews
”The Ineffable Mystery of Being”
(scroll down to read full article)



8 comments:

  1. Your Pooh Bear sounds like my Pooh Bear maybe they are made of the same stuff! Going to check-out your 'Forest'. xxx

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  2. oh such a wonderful post. i love the way you take your walk and make a beautiful story/pondering from it. to live without agenda, without expectation. YES. this is what i wish to do and can do sometimes. and when that agenda/expectation arises, my next prayer is that i see it quickly and let it go. thanks for the quote. beautiful. and i must say the idea of no expectations at the holidays is a big one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Thank you Suki :) Yes, it's all a wonderful expotition if we have the awareness to see what we need to see from it. Letting go and just living it... Sometimes it's harder than others, which is why it's fun to have Pooh along so he can point things out :)

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  3. “Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
    "Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
    "And he has Brain."
    "Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
    There was a long silence.
    "I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything.”
    ― Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

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    1. This made me laugh! So true! I remember reading this part in the original book too! Love it! I need to get The Tao of Pooh!
      Here's to no brainers! :) lol

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  4. lovely post of your real and metaphorical walk. Life is like that. And those dead ends and cul de sacs: necessary parts of the journey for reasons unknown to us at the time.

    It reminds me of the supposed Edison quip. "Mr. Edison you failed 2000 times." Edison"'s retort: "No it was a 2000 step process"

    Happy mid winter wandering!

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    1. Thanks Carole! Interesting isn't it how the path changes through the ebb and flow of living... And how just being open to life can bring us what we need - along with a little Pooh Bear wisdom :) I just went out and got a copy of the Tao of Pooh, as you had recommended it last year at this time, when I found myself in a similar place - going in circles :)

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