Sometimes, one gets distracted. I hear people talk about how life gets in the way. But does it really? And in the way of what exactly? Is life one of the elements of our existence? What IS life? How much of our existence is ‘life’ and how much of it is ‘being in life’?

I imagine ‘life’ that gets in the way is what one does, their duties, because only duties get in the way (of whatever it is outside of them).  For something to get in the way of something else, they need to be on different, most likely opposing, paths. One is a desired path, the other is unsought, but unavoidable. The question here then is: who decides which is which? And who sets the criteria for desirability? Who or what labels the paths and draws their shape?

As I write these words, my ‘scientific’ mind is searching for a formula to explain my thoughts: paths, life, distraction, choice – all this suddenly seems muddled, fuzzy, and so abstract, maybe because it is, or maybe because our multidimensional existence is too complex for our three-dimensional mind. We think in three dimensions because this is how our world appears to us. When it comes to paths, our thinking is even reduced to two dimensions. Paths lead from A to B. So if I want to get to B, I need to start in A and head towards B, preferably moving forward. Perhaps facing a few obstacles on the way, perhaps taking a diversion or two, but always moving forward.

But what if there was no ‘forward’? What if there were other dimensions that took us into C, D or E which we didn’t even know existed? What if all we needed to do was let our journey be free from ‘paths’? Do we have to live our lives on a ‘mission’ to get somewhere? What if the only ‘somewhere’ we would ever get was ‘here’ and ‘now’? Does that deprive our life from meaning? Or does it make it more meaningful than we will ever bear to understand or dare to accept?

The rhetoric I hear today is that of making progress, meeting targets, reaching goals, achieving outcomes – all linear; all pathway-driven; all two-dimensional. And we wonder why many people feel ‘trapped’? Our multi-dimensional existence surpasses our two-/three-dimensional minds, and only when we live by existence, not mind, that we will see the endless paths we can take, and the many more we can make, starting here and now, and ending here and now.

Is your journey path-free?