We Are Always Exactly Where We Need To Be

“Since it is all too clear it takes time to grasp it.”

… Wumen

Have you ever headed out on a day-or-other-trip, not knowing where you are going?  I did recently, and the lessons learned were profound.

A few of months ago my partner and I headed off on a day trip to a (relatively) near-by location to visit with his family.  These daytrips were becoming increasingly rare, as the side-effects of my partner’s parkinson’s drug regimen increasingly keeps him (us) close to home.

Before leaving on this day trip, I used the wonderful on-line utility, Mapquest, to map out our journey.  My partner had also written down directions; but his constantly-tremoring hands made it difficult for me to decipher the instructions.

It was a beautiful drive, northward, to a mountainous region of a neighboring province.  We were having a great time enjoying the scenery and each other’s company.  The warm, summer air was still blessing and caressing us with its healing energy.

My trusted Mapquest directions served us well, right up to the point where we were on the road that the destination cottage was supposed to be located on…

As we turned on to the road where the cottage was to be located, we began to look for the cottage where my partner’s family were situated.  We read the numbers on the cottages and began to realize that the numbers did not, as is normally the case, increase sequentially as one proceeded down the road.  This confusion and frustration on our parts grew as we were not able to locate the number of the cottage we were to visit.

We drove up and down this road a couple of times, more and more baffled by the irregular civic address numbering schema, or lack therefore, and began to wonder if we were ever going to the find the destination cottage.

We had been driving for a couple of hours and this turn of events felt anti-climactic to say the least.  I began to wonder if, or how much, we were lost.  Was it possible there was more than one “Chemin de la Lac” in this province and we were at the wrong one!?

After driving up and down this road several times, I gestured to my partner that we should pull over at a point in the road just up ahead.  I wanted to take a little mental rest, catch my breath, and review our directions and instructions. 

I remember thinking to myself… “Oh dear God, where are we!?”  I asked my partner for his hand-written directions and we began to compare notes.  To my dismay, it appeared we had two, very different sets of instructions.  My thoughts of if, or how much, we were lost began to rise up like a volcano preparing to erupt.

As these emotions reached a crescendo, an arm thrust itself through the opened passenger window and wrapped itself around my partner’s neck.  I was momently shocked by the scene…but when I heard a giggling voice associated with the arm’s motion, my fear backed off.  And it was then I realized the arm was that of my partner’s sister who was greeting him with joy and excitement.

As the scene unfolded over the next few moments, we both became aware that the spot we had stopped at to check our bearings was directly in front of the precise cottage we were to have visited on that day.  We had arrived!  Hallelujah!!!

We are never not exactly where we are supposed to be.  Said positively, we are always exactly where we are supposed to be.

Shanti, Namaste, Agapé,