One of my favourite quotes says, "It's good to have an end to the journey, but it's the journey that matters in the end." I like this because it takes a big picture view to life and all the experiences that happen during it. It's a bit like appreciating the whole forest over the individual trees, a perspective that I've come to appreciate more and more as I've got older (and older!!).
The reason for mentioning this is that I came across a discussion thread recently on a forum (a triathlon one, of all places!!) where someone commented that their two most hated words were Journey and Passion. He followed up saying he came to this conclusion from the over-use of these words in common language - and the media - where they're used and applied in all range of contexts, thereby twisting and re-defining what the words actually mean.
Reading his comments stopped me in my tracks to think a bit about how I saw these words. I like them...and I also agree with him!!!
I'm certainly no linguist, so I relate to these words for what they mean to me, and each of those two words resonates in a similar, but different way that reveals a little of my background and the path which has brought me to where - and who - I am now.
However you look at it, life is journey featuring many twists and turns, speed humps and dips, freeways and bumpy tracks. I can certainly look back and see that my route has been far from direct, and included challenges which were, I guess, as unique as every human is. At the time I just pressed on in the direction I believed pointed to where I wanted to go - and by extension, who I wanted to be. So it's only in looking back I can appreciate how twisted the map was I was referring to...and that I had no idea who I wanted to be (not that I do now, either)!!!
It's also in looking back that I appreciate what I went through, what I learned and how I've subsequently grown from that. As they say, experience is not what happens to you, it's what you do with what happens to you. I think that, perhaps, people who travel along a somewhat sanitised and orchestrated route may not have the benefit of working out what "works" for them just through trial and error. Often you learn more from mistakes than what goes right, both at the time and looking back with hindsight.
So, for me, the word Journey encompasses all of this and more. I use the word in the full context of everything I've been through in my life - good and bad, right or wrong - right to where I am now, which is no more than a point on the continuum.
As for Passion, to me this means the things that are important and which form the pieces that make up the whole person I am. It doesn't mean obsession about one thing at the expense of others, for that would lead to an imbalance in life. The things I have a passion for - in contrast to being passionate about them (that sounds obsessive to me!!) - are those which colour my life, which give me perspective, enjoyment, comfort, happiness, health, warmth and more. We're the sum of many parts, none necessarily more or less important than the other, and they're what define Passion for me.
But when these words are tossed around frivolously in common language, and used to make a cheap, throw-away point, then it's almost a disservice to the beauty of language, and the poignancy and richness they can add to discussion. Long live Journey and Passion!!!
The reason for mentioning this is that I came across a discussion thread recently on a forum (a triathlon one, of all places!!) where someone commented that their two most hated words were Journey and Passion. He followed up saying he came to this conclusion from the over-use of these words in common language - and the media - where they're used and applied in all range of contexts, thereby twisting and re-defining what the words actually mean.
Reading his comments stopped me in my tracks to think a bit about how I saw these words. I like them...and I also agree with him!!!
I'm certainly no linguist, so I relate to these words for what they mean to me, and each of those two words resonates in a similar, but different way that reveals a little of my background and the path which has brought me to where - and who - I am now.
However you look at it, life is journey featuring many twists and turns, speed humps and dips, freeways and bumpy tracks. I can certainly look back and see that my route has been far from direct, and included challenges which were, I guess, as unique as every human is. At the time I just pressed on in the direction I believed pointed to where I wanted to go - and by extension, who I wanted to be. So it's only in looking back I can appreciate how twisted the map was I was referring to...and that I had no idea who I wanted to be (not that I do now, either)!!!
It's also in looking back that I appreciate what I went through, what I learned and how I've subsequently grown from that. As they say, experience is not what happens to you, it's what you do with what happens to you. I think that, perhaps, people who travel along a somewhat sanitised and orchestrated route may not have the benefit of working out what "works" for them just through trial and error. Often you learn more from mistakes than what goes right, both at the time and looking back with hindsight.
So, for me, the word Journey encompasses all of this and more. I use the word in the full context of everything I've been through in my life - good and bad, right or wrong - right to where I am now, which is no more than a point on the continuum.
As for Passion, to me this means the things that are important and which form the pieces that make up the whole person I am. It doesn't mean obsession about one thing at the expense of others, for that would lead to an imbalance in life. The things I have a passion for - in contrast to being passionate about them (that sounds obsessive to me!!) - are those which colour my life, which give me perspective, enjoyment, comfort, happiness, health, warmth and more. We're the sum of many parts, none necessarily more or less important than the other, and they're what define Passion for me.
But when these words are tossed around frivolously in common language, and used to make a cheap, throw-away point, then it's almost a disservice to the beauty of language, and the poignancy and richness they can add to discussion. Long live Journey and Passion!!!
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