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“Are we there yet?” This question is familiar to most of today’s generation’s parents. The longer we travel, the more we hear these sorts of questions, especially when our kids are not preoccupied with smart gadgets or other activities.  After we book our flight for any trip, usually the first thing they ask is, “Will we get to watch T.V. on the airplane?” If the answer they receive is no, then mostly we are served with the follow-up question, “Then how we are supposed to keep ourselves busy on such a long journey? It is going to be so boring…”

Destination is appealing to everyone. No wonder kids get enthralled when they hear about any trip to their favorite destination. It is natural to hope to reach there sooner and enjoy the beautiful place! But what about the journey?

In the middle of the road trip to California, my kid asked this question,

“Mumma, how long would it take to reach there?”

I answered cheerfully, “About 4 hours”.

“Oh, ok… what if I you speed up a little?”

“We need to be in our speed limit, you know it, right.”

“Yes mumma, sorry. I see… will do the time check after some time. I am sure we will have less time remaining then,” he said.

“I am sorry, Son! It might seem more than 4 hours then!” I replied.

He was confused, completely befuddled with my answer. How come we will have more time remaining? In what way will we be gaining time? He thought.

The fact is that time just flies if we are captivated by the journey. If we enjoy every ounce of our life; if we truly live our life every moment, we won’t realize when we encounter the destination.

On the other hand, if our eyes are fixed just on the destination; if we don’t enjoy the process of reaching there, the journey seems longer, exhausting, and the destination seems farther to us.

Whether it is travel or life, the journey is important. We all have a destination to reach. Some who might have found their life’s purpose figured out their life’s final destination. Most of us have several small destinations to reach whether it is achieving good health, losing, or maintaining weight, becoming successful in career, buying a new home, finding peace and wisdom, achieving good mental health, establishing a good relationship, etc., But irrespective of the type of destination; we couldn’t neglect the journey to reach to our destinations.

So, does this mean thinking about the destination is not important at all? I don’t think we can neglect either destination or journey. It occurs to me that if I don’t keep my eyes on the goal- on my destination; I might have the risk of losing track of it. I guess we are talking about keeping the balance. Yes, we all need to have a focused goal. What is life without any goal? After all, a purposeful life is the purpose of life. We all should know where to reach. But should not be occupied thinking about just the destination all the time. The glory is living in that process too, right! Otherwise, what will happen when we reach our destination? We might stand there and be eager to search for another one. Our hunger is never going to end, and not to forget in the rush of reaching the goal we already might have lost the important aspect of enjoying the small joys of life.

In today’s world, we hear this all the time, “Our life has become a race for us!”; “We are occupied all the time.”; “Sorry, couldn’t get time to meet you; too many things going in parallel!”  

The sad truth is that while we all want to have a purposeful, peaceful, happier, joyful, and healthier life; being busy around the clock and not finding time for “Life” is well accepted and gloriously appreciated.  If we get time, we would want to get that spare time filled up with some work for sure.

“I like to take it slow”; “Of course, I have that time free, I am not doing anything.”; “I enjoy my free time.” is not socially “well validated”!

Yes, the destination is always glorified, attractive, pain-free, and beautiful. Possibly the journey has joys, but it also has pains, sorrows, and struggles. Maybe that’s the reason we want to think about the destination all the time and want to reach there as soon as we can. But that’s just one chapter. The rest of the chapters are the chapters of the journey – the process. Like any book to reach the final chapter, we will need to go through all the chapters. If we don’t enjoy the mid-chapters, will we enjoy the book? Similarly, in life, if we don’t enjoy the journey of life, how can we enjoy our life? Unenjoyable living; would be just racing towards the destination. We will reach for sure, but were we truly present?

Let’s be present in the moment. Let’s slow down a little and live every bit of life. Admire the small joys of life. Appreciate the beauty of nature, and the people around us. Enjoy what makes us – us.

“The chase is never-ending.

there will always be a want for more

start the pursuit for less

believe me you won’t regret it after,

it’s the meet-up with you

the celebration you will truly adore!”

— Mridulika

Live in the moment! Pursuit for less! Enjoy the journey of life!

Thanks

Mridulika