National Find-Your-Direction Day

Such is the way of the world
You can never know
Just where to put all your faith
And how will it grow…
Gonna rise up
Find my direction magnetically

- Eddie Vedder


In the days when I have lost my footing and am unable to find even a semblance of hope it is difficult to write anything at all. I’m not sure if I’ve always had such days, if they are increasing in number and/or intensity, or if they are entirely new. I do know that I’m glad when a sparkle of inspiration catches my eye and I recall some piece of wisdom that I seemed to completely annihilate in the hours and days prior. After noticing a sparkle or two today, I remembered these songs lyrics by Eddie Vedder, which resonated with my soul the first time I heard them: “Gonna rise up, find my direction magnetically.” Yes, I reminded myself, I know something about how to do this. This is always how I’ve found my way. Not by listening to some guru or another—whether in the form of a person, book, or social doctrine—but by listening to my heart, following my soul, trusting my intuition. I find my direction magnetically, by the push or the pull of an energy current.

On the road, I’m the kind of person that thinks she has a better sense of direction than she actually does, and so I feel the need to be cautious about what I’m writing here. But the truth is, we can never know where exactly to put our faith and we certainly can’t know what it will grow into. But we can trust. We can trust that if we literally rise— stand tall with shoulders back and awareness centered in our guts—a sense of direction will call to us. It may be the round about route, as it often is for me when I’m driving, but maybe we we’re meant to see that field of poppies or to pass by the road kill for which we can then offer a prayer. Maybe there is a purpose to the hours or days of despair, when hints of behind-the-scenes sadness and anger emerge, before the stars of hope sparkle once more.

If I could create a national holiday it would be this: Find Your Direction Magnetically Day. Actually, I would create two such holidays, one in the spring and one in the fall. The task on such days would be to follow one’s inner sense of direction. To get out of bed and make every choice for the remainder of the day based on what one feels in one’s energy body or body-soul as long as it would not inflict injury on another. We’d have to loosen up some other rules, laws, and social norms, but I think it would be worth it. I don’t have the power, of course, to create a national holiday, but I think I’ll do this for myself next week. I will post about how it goes….