What is a journey? I woke up this morning with this question on my mind. The dictionary defines it as ‘An act of traveling from one place to another’. I thought about this ‘one place to another’ concept. I then begin to realize that a journey comes in many different forms both physical and emotional. I think that both take a lot of courage no matter what they are. You can have a spiritual journey, an exciting trip, making changes in your life such as a new relationship, a new home or a new job.
I have been on many journeys in my lifetime. Some of them were life changing, memorable, painful, humbling, exciting and lets not forget scary. I look back on them and there are two words that stand out. Courage and Love.
It takes courage to step outside of our ordinary, daily lives to experience a new journey. Sometimes we pick the journey and sometimes the journey picks us but either way, in order to survive it we must have courage. I am not one to ever be afraid of having courage. I think I learned that from an early age but I a pretty sure my personality has had a big part of that as well. I have learned that courage does not attack us, it embraces us and shows us that we are brave…brave enough to step outside of the box.
The second word is Love. We all say it in some form or another. It has a different meaning to us all. I think it was one of the most complex things I have tried to define for a long time. For me, the word love means free. I know, you are like ‘huh?’. Well, let me explain. I have heard ‘I love you’ all my life. From my parents, family members, friends and in relationships….its everywhere! I have been told ‘I love you’ only to find out that if that was their meaning of love then I would rather not have love. I have been told ‘I love you’ and then so happy that someone actually meant it. Through the years (my journeys) I have searched for this wonder of ‘Love’ that we all speak of. We all long for it! When I started thinking about the two words courage and love, how they have influenced my journeys in life I had to look harder at the word love. What I have learned is that love is FREE!! It was the first gift that God gave us, it is never changing and it is always there. Free, never changing, always there. Those are some really strong descriptions of something so many of us take for granted.
In my journey of life I have always had the courage to face what is in front of me and the courage to love through it all no matter what the ‘journey’ was. If you are reading this blog post it is my wish for you that you have the courage to keep going, keep love in your heart and embrace the world around you. There is always something good in every single day!
Love, hugs and smiles
The Sun Will Set To Rise 