The Road Less Traveled

There was an airplane crash in Lexington Kentucky Sunday. The press is reporting the cause of the crash was pilot error. The pilot took off from the wrong runway, one half the size of the runway assigned, and as a result the plane was not able to reach the speed necessary for successful liftoff. Forty-nine of the fifty people aboard died.

I often feel like I have taken the wrong road. Sometimes I can't find the road. Sometimes I don't know a road is ending and that I need to turn off onto another road. Sometimes I don't even know I am moving, what to speak of whether I am on the right road or any road.

The spiritual practice I follow is called a path. Movement again. Movement in a direction. Like a road, a path insinuates a direction prevously traveled. In the case of a path, it is a less frequently traveled narrow direction...a road conjures images of a wider, faster, more traveled and established direction.

The road is often used as a metaphor. The internet is called the "information super highway." Practicing eastern philosophies is referred to as "being on the path," and regret is often depicted as "the road not taken." No wonder we get tired by the time we reach our 50's and 60's. We've been in motion physically, mentally and spiritually, from the time we were born. It's exhausting.

Meditation is a good way to stand still and be still long enough to rest the spirit and the mind. But if you do it right your meditation will gradually move you deeper into yourself. Again, movement, regardless of how slow.

We live in constant motion on an orb that turns in place one full rotation every twenty-four hours. We move so constantly we don't even realize we're moving. Our heart beats, and our lungs expand. If we are alive we are moving. When we stop moving, we stop being alive, and then the living move us out of the way.

I'd rather be on a path than a road. Roads are too crowded and move too fast. It's too easy to get caught up in the direction of the traffic. It's too easy to miss your exit ramp. It's much better to be on a less traveled path so you can stop and rest along the way, enjoy the sights and see who is on the path with you. It's also much easier to ask for directions when you get lost.