The Greatest Adventure
And should by chance you do not know
where to find me,
Do not go here and there,
But if you wish to find me,
In yourself seek me.
Soul, since you are in my room,
my house and dwelling,
If at any time
Through your distracted ways
I find the door tightly closed,
Outside of yourself seek me not,
To find me it will be
Enough only to call me,
Then quickly I will come,
and in yourself seek me.
St. Teresa of Avila
Last week I wanted to travel to Ireland, Nova Scotia, Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii and more. Some call this the "travel bug" or getting the itch to travel. I call it my drug of choice. When I want to escape myself, I like to dream about getting the heck out of here. I think that changing location will make me happy. But it doesn't. I still take my loneliness with me.
Yes a new place can cause a rush of excitement, with so many new places to see and people to experience. But that rush is a flash in the pan. Eventually, if I am lonely, I am lonely. It creeps back in. If I feel less than enough, a thatched roof cottage on the coast of Ireland is not going to change that. It is an inside job.
It is not that traveling or moving to another place in the world is a bad thing. If I do not know the light and love within me and feel empty, and I think I am going to find it in a person, place or thing outside of myself, I won't. No place, person or thing can sustain me like the Love that lives inside of me. It can make me feel good for a moment, but then the good feeling is gone. The Love within sustains me. If I feel full of that Love and safe, and am called to take the Love and share it on the planet, that is different. I am carrying my fullness, my Light into the world. I am not a slave to what is outside of me, waiting for the sun of Hawaii to make me happy or the next person to say just the right thing. I carry my serenity with me and share with the people and landscapes around me.
The greatest adventure is the one straight to the soul. The greatest vacation I can take is to the Love within me. And the paradox is this: the body leads us there. Smack dab, straight into the moment, that is always changing. Like St. Teresa says, "in yourself seek me." When we do this, this makes every trip, whether it is to South Africa or to the grocery store, a gift. We are empowered because we know the gift lies within us.
Amen!
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