I stood on the deck at the back of my house next to the tree and the grass and the sky. It was night and I stared upon a full set of stars and a moon and few clouds.
I closed my eyes away from the distraction of reality and lifted myself out of my body. There I stood below, head up and arms dropped at my sides. And then the deck and the house and trees. Higher still capturing streets and highways in my mind’s eye.
Higher still.
The city. Many of them. Rivers snaking along on the edges of the continent. The familiar shape of my world; the glistening masses of the North; The seas and great oceans. And then clouds blurred my vision and dampened my skin.
Darkness and cold soon enveloped me. The rushing air slowly died away and the vacuum of nothingness surrounded me.
It was beautiful; the arc of the Earth; the Moon in front of the Sun. But I was cold and alone and I had long ago lost control of my travel, and with it any possibility of turning around and setting for home; and pain and fear and doubt and self-pity were all I could focus on.
And yet higher still I went.
The perfect orbs of distant planets rushed past me; the golden fire of the Sun in the center. And then other similar systems entered my vision. Many thousands of these lay scattered in semi-orderly fashion, quickly receding and shrinking away as I ascended further.
And eventually my ascent slowed and ended and I finally stood far enough back to observe the entire picture. This was where I sought; the end of my journey; here I finally find my answers.
For many days I stared, deeply searching the canvas before me; searching for an answer. Waiting and meditating until enlightenment.
And yet somehow, there was a distinct familiarity with what I was watching. And after a long period of silence and reflection I suddenly recalled, much to my dismay, what I stared upon.
It looked exactly like the sky I stood under on the deck at the back of my house next to the tree and the grass and the sky.
Such a long journey… Have I wasted my precious time and energy? Why couldn’t I simply have accepted the knowledge and wisdom I had before I started on this adventure? Why quest and hurt and suffer for an answer I had before I asked the question? What… have I gained?
And as I faded back into myself, and despondently rejoined my physical body, the answer came to me in my own voice:
Life is an experience, not an objective.
That the end, is not the point at which to feel the joy of success or the disappointment of failure; that the beauty and experience of the journey itself is where joy lies hidden away, in between the moments, behind the interactions, under each act and each sacrifice, begging to be observed and appreciated.
Every day. Every minute. If we could appreciate every second, then we would have truly lived full lives, irrespective of the end, whatever it may be.
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