The Adventure of the Unknown
This weekend I spent a few days with girlfriends at our cabin at Echo Lake. It was magic. The laughter, the conversations, the nature and beauty that surrounded us.
It was one of those weekends where you feel deeply connected to life.
One afternoon we were pulling cards from a spiritual deck. Four women, and somehow, out of all the cards we could have chosen, only two cards were drawn between the four of us. Two of us received one card, and two of us received the other.
My friend and I both drew Gnosis.
The card spoke of knowing — not as an idea, but as something experienced through all of the senses. As I read it, I could feel what it meant.
I stepped out of the room for a moment, and while I was gone someone asked my friend what stood out to her about the card.
“My passion is exploring the unknown,” she said.
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A few minutes later I came back into the room, and someone asked me the same question.
Without knowing what she had said, I answered, “My passion is exploring the unknown. What is more exciting than that?”
Everyone laughed because we had given the exact same answer. It was one of those moments where we all just paused.
This morning I found myself returning to the ideas of the known and the unknown, and to the idea that expansion seems to happen through the exploration of the unknown.
Many spiritual traditions tell a story of separation. We begin in God, become separated, and spend our lives trying to find our way back.
But what if exploration was the point all along? What if we left because the unknown was irresistible? What if knowing is home… but exploration is the adventure?
I found myself wondering whether there really is somewhere else we are trying to get, or whether this is exactly where we came to be.
With that question, I was reminded of the lost hiker John and I met on our backpacking trip. He had been hiking for miles in the wrong direction, and yet he was still enjoying the journey.
For him, there was no “wrong direction.”
He was experiencing the adventure.
