A sweetened, condensed blog

This blog has been running (albeit sporadically) for a couple of years now, and I’ve felt for a while that it’s lacked a certain something. Recently, I figured out what that something was: A cohesive theme. All good blogs seem to have something that unifies their content, and I can’t help but feel like mine is little more than rambling. I’ve decided to fix that.

I’ve been thinking about what would condense this blog to its purest form, the essence of what I really want to say here. It was the tag line in the title of the blog that made the light come on. It reads, “Find a path, then follow it.” This saying has several facets. One of them is concerned with discovery, especially the exploration of self. I believe strongly that there is no greater work we can do individually than learn about ourselves. In doing so, we paradoxically become able to see beyond our own interests and prejudices. This allows us to understand our intrinsic connection to our world and, through this understanding, we begin to recognize a life of happiness is possible because of others, not in spite of them.

Another facet of that statement communicates my belief that we are all the time at the crossroads, and that in order to fulfill our destiny, we simply need to choose our road. Lately, I’ve been talking a lot to people about choices, and the importance of making them instead of having them made for us. While, certainly, abdicating decision is also a form of choice, living one’s life solely by doing so does not help one find purpose and direction.

A third facet involves following the paths we choose. I very much value the importance of living a life of intention. Having a purpose gives meaning to what we do, however mundane or absurd it may seem out of context. It guides us in our choices, and helps us to see beyond the horizon. It motivates us when we are faced with challenges and helps us rebound from mistakes. Living with intention both supports and depends upon choice and self-discovery, and that symbiotic relationship is a source of constant fascination to me.

That’s what I decided to explore in this blog on: Self-discovery, choice, living with intention, and the relationship between these things. Sounds all serious and heavy, doesn’t it? I don’t think it’ll be that bad. Like I do most things, I fully intend to talk about this stuff with a spoon on my nose at times but, the more I consider this theme, the more I feel like it expresses what I really want to share and collaborate on through this blog.

Of course, there’s way more going on in my world than deep thinking, and I’ll continue to talk about life at Wayfarer House and teaching and the other things that fill up my world. It is the mundane bits, after all, that keep the big ideas in their proper place. The only exception to this will eventually be the Community School project. I’m constructing a separate blog to get that information out on the web. It should be done soon.

I hope this clarity in vision will improve the flavor and readability of the space. I feel confident that it will help me find a clear, consistent voice for what I write here. Maybe it’ll even be of use to someone, somehow. That’d be nice.