The Man Who Loves Walking Will Walk Farther

While goals and destinations certainly matter, it is our relationship with the journey itself that often determines how far we will ultimately go, and what we will become because of the journey. “The man who loves walking will walk farther than the man who loves the destination” -Sal Di Stefano. What do you love: compassion, kindness, truth; or do you love heaven/salvation? I personally believe that one who loves heaven/salvation and in order to reach there shows compassion, kindness, and truthful never reach heaven/salvation. And the one who loves, being compassionate, being kind, and living truthfully will not stop with heaven and salvation. Heaven is not the last stop. Either there is no heaven, or heaven is only one of the stops in our linear life.

Consider two hikers setting out to climb a mountain. The first fixates solely on reaching the summit, viewing each step as merely an obstacle to overcome. The second hiker, however, finds joy in the crunch of leaves beneath their boots, stops to admire unexpected views, and welcomes the burn in their muscles as a sign of their growing strength. When faced with an unexpected detour or a steeper path, which hiker is more likely to persist? The first is a traveller who wants to reach the top; and the second is a hiker who enjoys hiking.

There is an even deeper truth here: those who love the walking often discover destinations they never imagined at the outset. By remaining open to the journey, they find opportunities, insights, and possibilities that the destination-focused person might rush past.

The man who loves walking is already successful with each step he takes, while the destination-focused man must wait to find his joy. Perhaps most importantly, this philosophy transforms the very nature of success. Instead of hanging our happiness on future achievements, we find fulfilment in the present moment, in the very act of moving forward.

Comments

Religion Must Help Greater Acceptance And Not Control

What if you see people who never came to your church or never were part of the universal Church found with God; forgiven by god, loved by god, helped by god, and even pampered by god? Our average human spirit and mind will feel a bit of discomfort and repulsion. That exactly is what is happening with apostle John in Mark 9: 38-41. Membership in a religion in many phases in history, and religious practices like praying, church-going etc. has become tools and means of exercising superiority and control over others, or it becomes a means to exclude people. In the name of religion and religious practices we take control of what can be done, who can do it, what is good and bad, what is moral and what is immoral. This approach creates an exclusive moral, good, pure, and authentic race or people or group. We keep doing it as individuals and institutions for the fear of losing control over others. And that is the end of humanity. Stopping others from doing good comes from a sickening clo...

2025 Must Create Its Own Art

People are afraid of art, because real art brings the question and the answer into your house. Tonight’s art becomes inadequate and useless when the sun rises in the morning. The mistake lies not in creating art for tonight, but in assuming tonight’s answers will serve tomorrow’s questions. Louise Bourgeois, a French American artist, reflected, “art is a guaranty of sanity;” but that guarantee must be renewed with each dawn, each cultural shift, and each evolution of human consciousness. If some art endures through generations, it is only because of its capacity to speak, its ability to demand fresh interpretations that test and challenge the new. To guarantee sanity in the coming year, 2025 must create its own art. Why create art? Why watch art? Why read literature? True art, in the words of Sunil P Ilayidam, shakes that which is rigid and unchangeable. Art serves as humanity’s persistent earthquake, destabilising comfortable certainties and creating space for new ways of...

Your Primary Responsibility Is Your Life

What is the use of you gaining the whole world and losing your very life? Every Lenten season begins with this question (Luke 9: 22-25). I am accountable for my life—that is my primary accountability. Of course it does not mean that we have no responsibility towards others’ life. Often our life and the life around us, the life of the world, are so very intertwined, that we seldom know the difference. Spirituality is the capacity to know what saves our lives, and what does not. Spirituality is the capacity to know what to lose and what not to give up. Some battles in our lives we must lose, some battles in our lives we must fight till the end meaning to win—at least die fighting. Macarius the Great of Egypt (300–397 CE) was a monk, ascetic, and a Desert Father. He announced that he is going to the desert to wrestle with God. His disciple with amusement asked him, “Do you hope to win?” “No.” He replied, “I hope to lose.” We are constantly fighting battles in our lives, knowing ...

The Information Tragedy

The book, Nexus , written by Yuval Noah Harari explores a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI. While Harari was interviewed on his book the host reading out this sub titles of the book, asked, I hope it is a story of progress, it is a story of things getting better, meaning, the human race moves from the discovery of writing, to printing, to the newspaper, and at each stage our abilities getting better and advanced. Does that work that way? Harari smiled and replied, the basic question of the book is, if humans are so smart why are we acting so stupid? We are on the verge of destroying ourselves. The problem is not in our nature; the problem is in our information. Most people are good, but if you give good people bad information they make bad decisions, they make even self-destructive decisions. Look at mass delusion and psychosis in the 20 th century; things like Nazi Germany, most people who voted for Hitler and voted for him were not evil peopl...

New Year, New Beginning

The past year was different to different people. Some of us were very successful, won every battle we fought. Some others of us did not win every battle that we fought, might have found difficult even to get up from bed everyday, we just survived. But for both it is a new year. For those very successful, it is time to stand on the ground and not be overconfident, complacent, arrogant and egoistic. And it is also time to give back. And for those of us not very successful we have another new year with 365 blank pages, 365 blank days. It is a fresh new beginning. Start your dream and go all the way. “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth—not going all the way, and not starting”, said Buddha. Every New Year tells that we cannot eternally postpone important things in our lives. We must begin somewhere. How many lives do we have on this earth? One, two, three, four, or more? One of the foremost thinkers and philosophers of China, Confucius, four centuries before ...

A Sower Went Out To Sow

The Word of God is stubborn and persevering (Mark 4: 1-20). I would imagine that the sower is stubborn and persevering. The Word of God, which is compassion, love, mercy, inclusivity, truth, and so on will bear fruit, whatever may be the obstacles from within or from outside, provided there is a sower. There can be difficulties; no thorns, rocks, paths, and birds can steal it away entirely—the world still has good soil. It was an encouragement to the disciples who were hearing this parable, and working to spread the values that Jesus preached. I believe if there is someone to stand up or speak up at the right time, whatever may be the odds, it will eventually bear fruit. When a student asks a very disturbing question in a class, an average teacher gets upset, and asks the student to get out for he disturbs his and the so called normal class's peace. But remember, you may have sent the student out, but the question remains; and the question will seek answers. I have seen people bei...

SPRINGBOARDS and WALKING STICKS

Search This Blog