Philosophy on the farm

"Beautiful paths cannot be discovered without getting lost".

The teachers at my youngest son's school were on strike today so we made the most of our unexpected day together with a trip to the farm.

There was a maze which my son dashed into joyfully without any hesitation. By the time I had reached the entrance I could see his hands triumphantly waving at me above the hedges from the middle.

When he made his way back to me I asked him if he had been scared on his own not knowing the way. "Of course not" he explained, "I knew that even if I took the wrong path I would still end up where I was meant to be".

Simple.

In life we can sometimes get too caught up in where we think we should be heading and how we think we should get there. Then, if we don't get to where we wanted to be we can feel regretful and look back wondering what we could have done differently. This can be a great source of sadness.

There are no wrong paths. Opportunities are always present, even if they are not the ones we are looking for, and we can sometimes be so focused on what we think we want we don't see them.

The next time I feel I have gone astray I will remember today and the trust of a young child that he would end up where he needed to be, after all beautiful paths cannot be discovered without getting lost. 

When opportunity knocks, do you have to answer?

“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.” Josh Billings

Recently I have had an amazing opportunity pretty much fall into my lap and when the door of opportunity opens, you should jump through before it swings shut again right? Well, no. In my case it was more tentatively shuffling through with my hands over my eyes, not convinced it was the right thing at all.

I gained some clarity today whilst talking it through with my teacher and mentor Shamash Alidina. "Saying no to something", he wisely told me, "is saying yes to something else. If you don't take this one, other opportunities will come".

Of course it can be scary turning down a surefire thing (especially financially) but I had momentarily lost sight of one of the Dalai Lama's 18 rules for living, the 3 R's.

Respect of self. Respect for others. Responsibility for all your actions.

As grateful as I am for this opportunity, and no matter how many people tell me I am lucky and should go for it, I know in my heart it is not the right thing for me.

So, I am honouring myself, and all involved in saying no and I trust that there will be other, exciting things ahead if I remain open and true to myself.

If find yourself in a similar situation trust your instincts, they won't guide you wrong.