That’s something we all know, isn’t it? Yet so much of our time is focused on getting somewhere, getting something, getting someone, and we forget what we know in the pursuit of what we feel we should have.
Geocaching provides a great metaphor for this dichotomy. It’s essentially a treasure hunt, right? Well … not really. Because if you read the geocaching forums, you’ll see that people are constantly complaining of the low quality of trinkets found in caches.
So, okay, you won’t expect to get anything; but the triumph is in the actual act of locating the cache, right? Again, not really. I went out geocaching on Monday, and the cache container was sitting in the open, visible for hundreds of feet around. Not exactly a challenge.
But I was glad I’d gone, glad too for the serendipitous mistake I’d made in choosing a route where the terrain was, to say the least, challenging. I started out in a forest where recent terrible storms had felled a significant number of trees, their ripped trunks and dead carcasses strewn all around me. Then it was down a very steep trail to walk along the edge of a large pond, watching ducks paddling about their business. Up another (could it be?) even steeper incline, and the pond reappeared, miles (or so it seemed) below me.
After that, did I need the cache? Not really. The journey had been fulfilling and is what will stay with me. Now all I need to do is to apply that geocaching experience to my life, and I expect I’ll find myself becoming a happier, more peaceful, and more fulfilled person.
— Jeannette Cézanne
Posted by: — jcezanne
|
