We cannot create sustainable change on our own.
Even if we have supreme ambition and the most energy in the world.
We simply cannot do it alone.
That’s not how lasting change happens.
Real change, transformational change, is organic. It is passed from person to person. Often through a variety of means because we are all so different.
And it takes time.
So who are you travelling with? Because you need them, and they need you.
It is hard to keep going against the undertow of the tide, even if the water is warm and calm.
And the path is never straight.
If you create a trail alone, who will come after you and keep the path clear and open? Otherwise, after you have passed, it will become overgrown again.
The Sage of Ecclesiastes offered wise insights again when they said, ‘A three-stranded cord is not easily broken.’
So, who might you reach out to because they are an intrinsic part of your story? And you, in theirs.
Pause. See differently. Re-story 🌿
This week
Unless you think that new seasons are simply a rehash of the past, it does raise the question of where you are going. And for me, this week has led to the realisation that pathfinding differs from path-making.
- Monday: A beautiful invitation to fullness (poem)
- Tuesday: Becoming is in the present tense
- Wednesday: These paths are made by walking
- Thursday: Which way to go?
- Friday: Go gently and tread lightly
The path is made by walking
My friend, Salvador Bosque from Spain, helpfully posted the original and a translation of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado’s words:
“Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.”
“Pathmaker, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Pathfinder, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never walk again.
There is no road;
only trails on the sea.”