“Just give me the first sentence and I’ll take it from there.”  The man kept repeating to no one in particular within his mind.

However, the first sentence never came.  Sure, he had so-called random thoughts about lots of things.  “There was a man and an ape.”  “Do you think we’ll find our way out?” These were sentences that came to him, but did not seem to be sufficient.

The man sat in solitude, continually trying to keep his mind quiet.  As he sat he kept getting distracted.  He was thinking about the work he has to do this week.  He was wondering what happens after his 500th writing.  The list of distractions seemed to grow more than he could quiet his mind.

Finally after what seemed like hours, the man drifted off to sleep.  When he was passing from the wake state to the sleep state, he began to dream.  In his dream there was a man dressed in a white robe.  He went over to the man and asked where he was.  The man smiled with bright, loving eyes and replied, “you are home my son.”

“Home?  This does not look like my home.”

“Are you sure, take a deeper look.”

The man walked around what appeared to be a cave.  He saw rocks next to a stream with little more than a trickle.  There were bits of light coming in through the cracks in the ceiling.

“Where am I?”  the man repeated.

“You are home.”

Not understanding what exactly was going on the man followed the stream which eventually led to an opening into the jungle.  In the jungle he could feel the heat of the sun on his face, but he was not hot.  He was extremely comfortable.

He continued walking along a path and approached a big animal in the middle of the path.  He was a little cautious but decided to continue onward.  As he got closer, he realized the animal was an ape.  Almost instantly, the ape turned around which startled the man.

“Do no be afraid, I am friendly.”

“Who are you?”

“I am the guide of the jungle.  Your guide as a matter of fact.”

“Wow.  I didn’t know I had a guide.”

“Where would you like to go?”

“I don’t really know, where should I go?”

“That is for you to figure out.”

The man sat on a fallen tree and began to think.  “I don’t really know where I am, so it’s hard for me to figure out where it is I need to go.”

The sun was beginning to fall in the distance, and he knew it would be dark soon.  Not really knowing where he was and what he should be doing, he asked his guide, “can you take me somewhere safe for the night?”

The ape motioned for the man to follow him.  They walked for what seemed like hours until they reached a cave.  It was a different cave and it did not have a stream that was easily visible.  The ape continued through the passages turning right, turning left, and confusing the man.

“There is no way I’m going to be able to find my way out of here,”  he thought to himself.

Finally, they reached a large clearing that had a clear pool of water with rocks and what looked like a bed made from leaves and branches.

“Do you think we’ll find our way out of here?”

“Certainly, I am your guide, and the guide of the jungle.”

The next morning, the man followed the ape out of the cave and into the jungle.

“Where would you like to go?”  he repeated from the day before.

“I would like to go home.”

“Ah, yes.  That is a good idea.”

The ape walked the man for hours through the jungle back to where the man began his journey.

“This is where I started,”  the man said with frustration.

“Yes, this is where it also ends.”

Then the man awoke from his dream.  He realized that this journey in this lifetime is nothing more than a dream.  He also realized many other things.

If you do not know where you are going, you cannot get there.  We all have guides, they just may not be visible to us – yet.  This lifetime is like his trip in the jungle – foreign,  yet somewhat familiar.

Life begins and ends at the “same place.”  When we are finished with this life’s journey we will return home.  When we return home, we can replenish ourselves, figure out what we’ve learned, and go back into the jungle if we so desire.

That night, the man went to sleep in his bed realizing that the journey is the life and his life is the journey.  He would no longer worry about the little things in life, but keep his eye on the larger, more important things.

Ω

InspiraCard

When we go through life, looking at numbers, placements, bank accounts and status, we forget what is truly important – each other.  Let go of the need to “accomplish” and begin to see the need to “live!”

Written, Mon, Feb 29, 2016 8:20 – 8:38 AM MST