Day 10 - Discovering New Lands

There has been no time like this in history. Just for a moment take that in. Never in human history, has the planet been shut for business. Something of great significance is happening here and thousands are recognising this truth, that they are living in an utterly unique time.

It is as if mankind has come to a land that has never been traversed before. It is virgin land. Therefore, there are no ready made paths and roads for us to walk upon. We must somehow find our way around this strangeness and newness without direction. Some will want to go north. Some south. Some east and some west. But are there any right routes to go?

Think back to previous centuries when new lands were discovered. There was no way that the whole of the Americas could be discovered by one man or woman in their lifetime. It was too vast. And so, what did these pioneers and adventurers do? They kept going until they discovered a place to lay their heads. They knew that if they continued to travel, they might discover somewhere which better reflected their hopes and desires. However, many chose to settle down because they had discovered the basics of what they were looking for. Others continued to travel and many never discovered anything better. However, at least they knew that they had tried and in the journeying they had discovered scenery and places that they never would have found if they hadn’t been brave enough to venture out.

The same will be true here. Some of you will find some place in this new land that you will quickly settle into. Others of you will be so excited at the possibilities that this new land offers, that you will be eager to travel and see as much of it is possible.

But then there will be others who lack the pioneering adventure seeking spirit, who will only want to reminisce about the good old days when they lived in the previous land of plenty. Many of those who yearn fondly for those times, may actually have been the very ones who moaned and groaned about them whilst living there.

What they are really saying is, “in that old place, we knew what the day would hold. There were familiar landmarks which yes, we often took for granted, but at least we knew they were there. They gave us stability and reassurance. They were the things we could rely upon. They were solid and firm and made us feel safe and in control.

In this new land everything is too new. There are no familiar landmarks. We don’t know what is around the next corner. There are no signpost telling us what is to the north, south, east and west. Therefore, we feel lost. We feel confused. We don’t know what to do or where to go and we don’t like that. We yearn for the familiar. We find it hard coping in this new land of the unfamiliar. It is strange and we don’t like strange. It is different and we can’t do different. We like sameness, for although it can become boring and dull, it is steady and we know where we stand.”

But there is no going back from this new land unless everything returns to how it was just a few weeks or months ago, and no one truly knows if that will ever happen. So during this time we can yearn for the old or we can recognise it as an incredibly rare time in history. We can be overwhelmed by not having direction or we can take one day at a time and try to explore a little patch of this new land to see what it offers us.

The choice is ours. We may never get another chance to discover lands never before walked upon. Isn’t that a wonderful realisation?

What do you yearn for from your old life?

What in your current life do you find either stale or you take it for granted?

What prevents you from travelling to new lands of thoughts, ideas, circumstances and beliefs?

What small patch of new land might you dare to explore today? After you have, how did it feel going somewhere new and different?