“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?”
(Garth Nix, Sabriel)
(Garth Nix, Sabriel)
Got this in my inbox this morning. Many thanks to Mr. Quote Man. Good question, isn't it? Have you at some point or time in your life thought about that?
Looking back at my own journey, I can see that at times I have walked on paths I have chosen for myself. But then again at some point there, I now realize, the path had already been laid down for me and it wasn't what I would have wanted or thought was right for me.
This led me to more thinking.... The path or paths I have chosen for myself were good, some made me happy, but erred in more things than not, and then some made me unhappy to say the least. On the other hand, what was already laid down for me to walk on were stuff which took me to more challenges, struggles, frustrations, and sometimes defeat. Surely that's not the kind of life anyone would image for himself.
But as I am now.. older and I hope wiser.. I can see and have learned that my choices were almost always for personal satiety, fulfillment, but not necessarily growth. So then life steps in or some Divine Intervention (that seems to be a better name to call it) set me out in a different direction. One with a hidden agenda and which I could not - would not understand then because it led me through the ..... fire!
To cut a long story short, did that do me any good?
You bet that it did! It achieved what it had set out to do ... make me grow.
So that quote/question above there, to my mind, is really not a question. It's simply giving us a hint that either way we can make it good. Because we (the 'walker choose the path') can make our choices well with the focus on growth, progress, maturity, self-improvement where it should matter most. And that which we have no control over ('the path the walker'), usually the path already laid down for us by Someone or Something, should be handled with an open mind heart and soul because you know deep inside that it is there not for nothing. The reason is always that you should grow. And that, my dear friends, is by God's design.
Choose growth; choose to learn.
It's always a blessing to be here among friends.
Have a blessed day, everyone!
