Somewhere along the way we’ve learned to treat life like an arrival gate. I’ll be okay when I get there. I’ll rest when I finish this. I’ll feel better when things finally line up. I’ll be happy when I arrive.
But life keeps whispering a different truth. What if it’s not about arriving at all, but about being on your way? This idea shows up again and again across different traditions and various schools of thought.
Emerson wrote about finding “the journey’s end in every step of the road.” Buddhist teachings remind us that happiness is not waiting at the end somewhere, but is found in the way we are present now. Daoist thought speaks of the path unfolding. Stoicism doesn’t ask us to become perfect, only to keep making progress.
It sounds like most of life is not made of grand arrivals. Unless you’re getting off a plane and someone is waiting for you with flowers. In that case, consider yourself lucky.
I don’t know about you but for me life is made up of tripping over my own feet again and again.
Life is about changing my mind once again before making up my mind. It’s about getting over and getting up after another disappointment. It’s about learning to trust while nothing on the outside has fully resolved yet.
So much of our suffering comes from wanting the answer before fully understanding the question. We want the bloom without taking the time to water the seed. We want clarity without brainstorming what that even means for us.
In fact, life is much simpler and more forgiving.
We don’t have to have everything figured out, we don’t have to be moving in the right direction. We don’t have to be perfect in order to become more of who we are. We don’t have to arrive at some grand platform in order for our life to have meaning.
Being on your way is all that matters. And that can take many shapes and forms. For me, it means I’m still learning. It means I’m still becoming.
The most honest thing I can say is not “I’m there,” but “I may never arrive, yet I’ll keep going.”
Just think about it. There’s something deeply comforting in that thought.