📿 A parable for whatever path you're walking

And a contemplation of sorts.

IMAGE ID: On a Springtime walk with Winnie. The countdown to green season begins!

Hello you, Adreanna here for this week’s dispatch of The Laundry — 

In lieu of our usual format for The Laundry, I wanted to offer you something a little different this week. Call it a contemplation of sorts.

There is a passage from my book, Tea And Cake With Demons, that’s been on my mind recently, where I share my favorite parable about The Eightfold Path. While it’s a parable about walking a specific kind of path (The Eightfold one of Buddhist philosophy), I’ve been considering the ways in which it applies as seamless guidance for walking ANY kind of proverbial path or moving forward with any sort of venture. 

Let’s try a little experiment together. Think of a “path” that you are on right now.

For me, I’ve been thinking about how this parable relates to the path of parenthood, which still feels so tender, wobbly and new (might it always?), though there are many different trails that you could potentially be traversing right now.

Perhaps your current “path” is best summed up as the path of creativity. The path of aging. The path of romance. The path of activism. The path of self-acceptance. The path of heartbreak. The path of meditation. The path of livelihood. The path of transition. Maybe none of these suggestions quite fit the bill. Maybe many seemingly disparate “paths” are converging for you all at once right now. Consider what is relevant to you and the way that you might name it. 

If nothing genuine springs to mind, you might try asking yourself the following question: 

“How do I move forward skillfully with _________?” And let the blank fill itself. Trust whatever takes that space. 

Now that you have something personal to hold in mind as you’re reading, here’s the parable and the passage that’s been on my mind; may it be a useful lamp post to aid your path as well. 

Happy trails, dear one. And still, we keep on walking.