The Journey is as Important as The Destination…
In my February blog post, I shared concerning the significance of 2023 being a milestone year, celebrating 60 years of life, 30 years of ministry and marriage. As I write this March blog post, I’m sitting in my hotel room near Table Mountain, a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa.
This year during Lent, I’m practicing the spiritual disciplines of silence, listening and meditation. My husband and I left Atlanta on Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023, for a 13-day ministry journey to South Africa. Because of the partnership Delta airline has with Peloton, I was able to log into a 15-minute chair stretching workout and a 15-minute patience meditation during the flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam. Knowing we are on an 8-hour flight, with a 2-hour layover and another 12-hour flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town, the meditation guide encouraged us to breathe deeply, and enjoy the journey rather than the destination. Then she said, “The journey is as important as the destination.”
These words leapt in my spirit. I responded, “Yes!” I began to think about this milestone year and the significance of my personal and ministerial journey. The word journey is defined as an act or an instance of traveling from one place to another. The intransitive verb is to go on a journey. However, I’m more interested in the transitive verb, to travel over or through, because it speaks more of the time and experiences of the journey, than the destination itself.
I’m also struck by the Collins English Dictionary countable noun definition of the word journey. Collins posits, journey refers to a person’s experience of changing or developing from one state of mind to another. Collins invites us to embark on an inner journey to better understand ourselves. Using synonyms such as progress, passage, voyage, and pilgrimage as descriptors of the journey of life.
Living Well Dying Well is a Catholic program which aims to enhance the journey of people who are sick and may be approaching their end of life. They state, “the journey through life is filled with wonder, challenges, broken hearts, extreme highs and lows, celebrations, special moments, and memories that define our experience as a human. It is these events, planned or unexpected, that impact our travels and define our purpose.”
This statement is so valuable because too often, we are focused on the destination that we miss the lessons of the journey. We miss beautiful sights that are designed to refresh us along the way. We miss moments of growth that come from our experiences both good and bad. We casually dismiss the people we have significantly impacted our journey and the significant impact we have made on other people’s journey.
I invite you to join me on a journey of listening, silence, and meditation as we reflect together on the journey of our lives. Listen to discover how we have changed, grown, developed, and evolved. Be silent to hear and unearth lessons learned. Meditate on the impact of others in our journey, the impact of our lives on others, and remember the journey is as important as the destination.
On the journey with you,
Dr. Toni