Honor the journey

Life is a journey

This metaphor has been used over and over again from a diverse group of accomplished people over time:

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it’s a journey without a destination.
Gymnast Nadia Comaneci said to enjoy it and try to get better every day.
According to both Michelle Obama and mixed martial artist Alexander Volkov, the journey doesn’t end.
According to pastor and author Rick Warren, the journey is one of discovery.
Street artist and political activist Banksy says not everyone will understand your journey and that’s ok.

I could go on with many more, and even though I am not a Trekkie, I’ll end with wisdom from Star Trek, the journey where no man has gone before:

“Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment because it will never come again.”

Captain Jean-Luc Picard (aka actor Patrick Stewart)

Progress made in cancer treatment and a growing body of knowledge around the causes of cancers and mechanisms of cancer cells have created a new, real kind of journey where no man has gone before, a journey with more time, given to some people with advanced cancer, like metastatic breast cancer.

A journey without a map

Image source: al-Idrisi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

If indeed life is a journey, it’s one without any map or signs except the ones we create and seek out through our dreams and goals.

If it’s a journey, some of us have been given a treacherous path. We could complain and blame. We could give up. We could keep moving forward. But no matter what, how about simply acknowledging it and honoring it, the lessons and insights and goodness we might gain if we only pay attention?

I hope this message reaches healthy young people and anyone else striving and struggling to live under the tyranny of Instagram perfection, comfort, and ease. It seems to me that that journey is more difficult and heartbreaking.

Comfort and ease are good things, but I don’t think we can truly appreciate them without ever experiencing dis-comfort and dis-ease. And that’s why Honor the Journey is one of the tenets of Stage Four Living. Honoring the journey is about acknowledging and bearing witness to the struggles that are part of every life. Struggles that shape us, for good or for bad, revealing to ourselves and the world who we truly are.

Let’s honor the cancer journey. Let’s honor the cancer journeys of friends, co-workers, neighbors, family members, and anyone else who matters.

Honor and acknowledge the struggles and pain. Honor and acknowledge the blessings and every little win.

Honor your journey.