#erleichda

(1551) Smoke her shoe!

Erleichda crow, acrylic painting on cardboard

~E R L E I C H D A~ July; 2017

from Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead

If I’ve learned anything in the last 25 years, it’s that we, as individuals, are ultimately responsible for providing ourselves with the relief we are always so desperately looking for. Relief from what, you might ask? Most of the time, I’d say it’s relief from the journey itself. The journey isn’t always easy, clear, or welcoming. It can be difficult, but that doesn’t mean the only way to overcome it is to take it seriously, or that there are no benefits scattered and hidden along the way. Perhaps such a reward as relief simply can’t be provided by an outside source. Perhaps it is so that true relief only comes from within. In this regard, I don’t think the destination really matters all that much. It is on the path itself that we find what we’re looking for. Maybe we just don’t know it yet… but maybe all the meaning and purpose we’re looking for is right under our feet, on whatever road we currently happen to find ourselves travelling along. When have we really ever arrived anyway? Perhaps arrival is just one big lie, and the truth is that it is the journey that defines us, as opposed to wherever it is we someday hope to be. It is the journey we are looking for. As paradoxical as it may seem (maybe those Zen monks really are on to something…) it is only by continuing to journey that we find relief from the journey itself. So how are we to find relief? Hopefully this one bit of advice will help: “Lighten up!”

Tom Robbins

Tom Robbins

-Jitterbug Perfume