On My Journey Home

Today was number two.
But this one was no gig.

Rise, O Fathers, Rise
Let's go meet 'em in the skies
We will hear the angels singing
in that morning.

As the end of the year gets closer, I've mentally started to tally up life's wins and losses for the 2007 season and make some sort of sense of it all. If truth be told, I think I've been doing this subconsciously for the past few months. It's been that kind of year.

Rise, O Mothers, Rise
Let's go meet 'em in the skies
We will hear the angels singing
in that morning

Oh, I really do believe
that just before the end of time
we will hear the angels singing
in that morning

And after all this time... Surprisingly, I have few answers. It's been that kind of year too. But this doesn't mean I just spent the last twelve months passively spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. To the contrary.

No time to tarry here
No time to wait for you
No time to tarry here
For I'm on my journey home.

It's not so much that over the past year I gained answers to life's big questions. What I think I gained out of 2007 is recognizing that I'm on a journey. Home. To myself. And in that realization lies a huge lesson: Answers cannot necessarily be found when, where and how I would like them to be. And although sometimes a lack of answers makes the journey that much scarier and difficult, in the end, it is OK.

It's one thing to understand that answers are not always forthcoming. It's quite another to travel down a road someone else told you to take and never question the direction in which you're headed. There's a fine line between acceptance and perseverance, and without the latter, life ceases to be a journey and becomes something closer to a big game of Simon Says.

Brothers, oh fare ye well,
Sisters, oh fare ye well,
For I'm on my journey home.

It's difficult to understand (and even more so to accept) that in essence, this journey is a solitary venture. That doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of times when you happily and thankfully share your journey with others. Hopefully the path you walk will be crowded with loving, supportive fellow travelers for a good long time. But you can't drag others along if they don't want to go, and you can't walk in the opposite direction just because you want some company. Ultimately, the path you are meant to take, the pace you are meant to move, the wisdom you are meant to discover and the ultimate destination are yours and yours alone.

No time to tarry here
No time to wait for you
No time to tarry here
For I'm on my journey home.

It was a lot to learn in one year.
It's been hard. And sometimes it's been lonely.
But it's never been alone. There's always that singing.

Oh, I really do believe
that just before the end of time
we will hear the angels singing
in that morning