It’s September and whew! I’m back writing once again. As a mom of two teens, I had a summer of family members being in different places at different times. It was nice to get to the end of August and spend a week with them before school started once again.
We decided to go on a vacation in Quebec. My husband & I love Quebec – the people, the culture, the skiing, the majesty of so much nature. We started out in vibrant Mont-Tremblant and shifted over to glamping for a few days at Kiamaka reservoir. Even though Kiamaka is only an hour north from Tremblant, 30 minutes out of Tremblant we had to shift from GPS to a map. We left paved roads for gravel roads that became narrower as time progressed. We ended up in a spot that was so quiet and peaceful that I could feel all the noise of Tremblant and living in a city wash off of me.
We had a couple of days at Kiamaka without electricity or a phone signal. This left us with some space to connect with more presence, curiosity and random conversations. Yes I did hear a lot of opinions about Game of Thrones (which one of my sons and husband are watching) and when asked which character I’d be in the show, I chose a dragon (with my limited knowledge of one season) or Tyrion – the source of comic reprieve amidst so much violence and drama. My sons also took on the task of opening cans with a knife (as we had forgotten a can opener) – this is something I never would’ve tried myself.
The wonderful thing about glamping is that A) we were always dry even when it rained and B) we were given time and space to follow our most interesting path for that morning/afternoon/day. We saw loons and canoes, abandoned crocs on a beach, we threw rocks in the water and roasted things over a fire.
What is My Most Interesting Path?
When I saw Elizabeth Gilbert at one of her workshops, she talked about going to new places and taking the most interesting path for a few hours. There’s no agenda, just curiosity & letting yourself go in whichever direction you choose. I like this idea in the literal sense of exploring a new place and also as a concept for looking at the multiple paths that we can take in life. We can choose our most interesting path for 10 minutes and see where our body takes us. Maybe it’s outside, maybe it’s doing some yoga, maybe it’s hugging a tree.
We can also take a macro lens on our lives and reflect more deeply on what would be my most interesting path? What would it be like to go and take it? What stops me from taking it? What do I gain from not taking it?
Does This Path Have a Heart?
As an adult, I have to make many decisions. Many are minute and some are big. Sometimes the bigger decisions are challenging to make.
When it comes to these bigger decisions we need to make in life, I came across a quote from Carlos Castaneda about looking at our paths and choosing them based on whether they have heart.
“Before you embark on any path, ask the question, ‘Does this path have a heart?’ If the answer is no, you will know it. And then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question and when a person realizes they have taken a path without heart, the path is ready to kill them. At that point very few people can stop to deliberate and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable.”
So my wish for myself and for you this September is that you are able to find moments to follow your most interesting path and also connect to your heart about which path is best for you when it comes to the bigger decisions in life.
I’ve got many things in store for my next posts – Miranda July’s book All Fours, purpose anxiety, Human Design, my rekindled love for the show Survivor, and more!
I’ve got a few topics percolating about the human energy field too. If there’s a specific chakra or aspect of the biofield you’d like to learn more about – let me know.
