By Cathy Hird
Just before I switched off the radio to get back to work, a country singer crooned, "If you don't know where you're goin', you might end up somewhere else." This line resonated with a conversation about "life's mission" that I was part of on Saturday.
Taking an afternoon drive to see the changing leaves, we can make random turns as long as we keep a sense of how to get home. When, on the other hand, the road trip has a mission, when we are headed for a particular place, random turns will take us on detours. We have to keep the goal in mind.
If, however, we only think about the destination, we'll miss interesting sights along the way. Stick to the 400 series highways or the interstates in the US, you never see the different styles of house construction or the changing industries. You do see the shift in forest and farm, but the human culture is hidden.
Laozi, the founder of Taoism, wrote, "A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on the destination." Following his advice, one would slow down, take back roads and encounter the people and places along the way.
On the other hand, Laozi also wrote, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Here he seems to tell the reader to head toward a destination.
So do we need a purpose, a mission in life, or do we need to stay aware of what the moment brings to us and flow with it?
Each of us has a natural style. Some people are driven. There is a list of accomplishments they have to achieve. Each challenge is chewed up as they work for the goal. A good day moves them toward the person they want to become. On a great day, they have moved the world toward the vision they hold.
Some of us just take life as it comes to us. These people engage with the people who happen their way. They listen well. The world brings them challenges and gifts, and they flow with them. It is easy to be around them, to be in the world where they are.
It is a good thing to know what our personal style is, what a good day feels like for us. What throws us off and stresses us out? Being forced out of our natural style into the opposite is hard work.
But is there a time and a reason to take on part of the other style, the one that does not come so naturally to us? The two quotes from Laozi seem to suggest this would be worthwhile.
Because my husband has family in the US, we do road trips regularly. We know the interstates well. Because we only have so long to be away, to get to the destination, spend time with the family and get back to work, we calculate the straightest route. But for meals and gas, we usually pull off and find a small town to stop in. The memories of the drive we have are from random places and interesting people along the way. A good road trip needs both.
What about other parts of life? I had a goal this summer for the farm and the things I hoped to rebuild. A couple got done, but as fall deepens, the "to do' list remains long. Why? Well, a couple sleepers in the barn cracked and had to get fixed. And I found a place on the house where the mortar had fallen away. The mission was set aside to cope with immediate issues. Our work life needs a sense of vocation, what we hope to accomplish, but we also have to take into account the tasks that don't fit our purpose.
There are times when we need to just go with the flow because the tasks that appear in front of us are crucial; leave the mission for another day. And there are times when we are drifting happily along and need to wake up to the direction we are being pushed; there is a moment when we need to choose our purpose.
Drawing from Laozi, I might say that a good traveller attends to each step on the long journey to their destination.
Cathy Hird is a farmer, minister and writer living near Walters Falls.
