Seeking

"Myths derive from the visions of people searching their own most inward world.

Out of myths cultures are founded."

Joseph Campbell,

Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

I read Gilgamesh, contemporary with the oldest parts of the Hebrew bible, and The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse. Reading both along with Joseph Campbell's Thou Art That, a collection of essays and lectures on myths, provided me to appreciate more on the inner journey. 

In Gilgamesh there were three birds freed after the Great Flood. First, a dove. A dove returned because it could not find a place to land. A swallow was freed after a dove returned, it also returned after a while. Finally, a raven was freed. It never returned. That was the sign that there was a dry land somewhere on earth. That was when all the birds in the ark was freed, scattering to the wind. A raven was the bird that found a dry land.

Three quotes from The Journey to the East:

"[One] who travels far will often see things

Far removed from what [one] believed was Truth."

"The whole of world history often seems to me nothing more than a picture book which portrays humanity's most powerful and senseless desire – the desire to forget."

"Next to the hunger to experience a thing, [people] have perhaps no stronger hunger than to forget."

It's good to consciously take time to reflect. What a gift I have received. 

Journey of a soul, my inner being, carried partly through my physical body, is something I am pondering in my sabbatical. 

I have been reading and organizing for my upcoming trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. How much do I want to experience while I am there? This is a difficult question. There are so many events I could be part of while I am there. Balancing, finding harmony, between reflection in solitude and reflection with people in Santa Fe area is something I am struggling with at this point. 

Like anything in life, each choice provides a challenge and an opportunity. I am conscious of the inner journey in relation to my physical journey in my sojourn in Santa Fe, New Mexico – a place of pueblos, a place where the culture of the indigenous folks is still very visible. 

“I am seeking” may be an apt way to describe my hope in this journey. How I am open to the challenges and opportunities will shape my experience of this part of my sabbatical journey.